A tanker has delivered 13,800 tonnes of diesel oil to Timor-Leste, the first shipment there of diesel supplied by state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), the company says.

The diesel is fuel for the Betano power station in southern Timor-Leste, where it was delivered last week, CNPC announced in writing yesterday.

The company says a subsidiary, Singapore Petroleum Co. Ltd, and the Timorese national oil company struck the diesel oil deal last month.

CNPC says the deal lays the foundation for more oil or natural gas transactions between the company and Timor-Leste, where the authorities attach great importance to doing business with CNPC.

Singapore Petroleum and Timor-Leste will work together more closely to do further deals under the auspices of the Chinese Belt and Road initiative, CNPC says.