Yao Yage, head of China-Kazakhstan crude oil pipeline's operation center in the Alataw Pass, works at the operation center in the Alataw Pass, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 4, 2018. China's petroleum and chemical industry has generated some 712.1 billion yuan in total profit over the first nine months of 2018, up 45.2 percent from the same period of last year. (Xinhua/Zhao Ge)

ADDIS ABABA, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese firm Poly-GCL Petroleum Group Holdings Limited (Poly-GCL) is to construct the 767-km Ethiopia-Djibouti natural gas pipeline, the Ethiopia Ministry of Mines and Petroleum (MoMP) announced on Saturday.

In a press statement, MoMP said Ethiopian and Djiboutian government officials have agreed that Poly-GCL will start the natural gas pipeline project construction this year.

Both countries hope to earn much needed foreign currency once the natural gas pipeline project is constructed and commissioned.

The Ethiopian government had back in April announced plans to generate 1 billion U.S. dollars annually from extraction of natural gas and crude oil deposits.

Poly-GCL is expected to install a pipeline to transport the gas from fields in landlocked Ethiopia up to ports in neighboring Djibouti in a period of two years. Around 700 kilometers of the natural gas pipeline will be located in Ethiopia, while the rest of the natural gas pipeline will be located in Djibouti.

Recently, Poly-GCL discovered 7 to 8 billion cubic trillion feet of natural gas in Ethiopia's Somali regional state located in the eastern part of the country.

Poly-GCL is a mixed ownership clean energy company engaged in exploration and development, storage and transportation and processing, trade marketing and terminal utilization.