MOSCOW, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- The paving of a China-bound branch line of the
Eastern Siberia-Pacific oil pipeline may start at the end of the first quarter
next year, Nikolai Tokarev, president of Russia's state-run pipeline company
Transneft said in a TV interview on Thursday.
The designing work of the pipeline has been completed after the
coordination between Transneft and the China National Petroleum Corp, and the
construction project has been presented to related department in Russia for
appraisal, said Tokarev, adding that the result is expected soon.
According to last year's cost evaluation, the budget of the project was
about 600 million U.S. dollars, he said.
The construction is expected to encounter a series of technical
difficulties, including the paving of the pipeline going through the bottom of
the Amur (Heilong Jiang) River, but the current technologies can ensure the
smooth running of the project, he said.
Transneft wishes to start work as soon as possible, as the pipeline is
expected to run synchronously with the 960-km line part in China, which starts
from Daqing, China.
The 4,000 km-long Eastern Siberia-Pacific oil pipeline plans to link the
Siberian city of Taishet near Lake Baikal and Russia's Pacific region via
Skovorodino, the midpoint of the entire route. The first phase of the project,
the 2,690-km route goes from Taishet to Skovorodino is expected to have an
annual transport capacity of 30 million tons of oil.
The China-bound branch line will run from the midpoint of Skovorodino to
the Chinese border under the latest deal between China and Russia. Its document
was signed by Transneft and the China National Petroleum Corp during a meeting
between Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his visiting Chinese
counterpart Wen Jiabao on Tuesday.
Construction of the first phase of the pipeline was originally planned to
start between October to December this year but was later postponed till the end
of next year. But Putin in August ordered the speeding up of the construction.
