China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) has inked a deal to build a $3.29 billion oil pipeline in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the company's largest overseas construction project so far.

CNPC, the country's largest oil and gas producer, signed the agreement with its UAE partner on Sunday. It will build a 400-km pipeline to Fujairah port from an oilfield in the western part of the country, CNPC said in a statement on its website yesterday.

The pipeline, with a designed capacity of 1.5 million barrels per day and a maximum capacity of 1.8 million barrels per day, is expected to start operation at the end of 2010, it said.