Work planned on first part of Taishet-Nakhodka pipeline

June 8, 2005
The first section of Russia's proposed Taishet-Nakhodka pipeline will be laid in 2008, and two oil companies—Surgutneftegaz and OAO Yukos—will provide the crude oil to fill it, according to Russian Minister of Industry and Energy Viktor Khristenko.

Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent

LOS ANGELES, June 8 -- The first section of Russia's proposed Taishet-Nakhodka pipeline will be laid in 2008, and two oil companies—Surgutneftegaz and OAO Yukos—will provide the crude oil to fill it, according to Russian Minister of Industry and Energy Viktor Khristenko.

"Work on the project is to be completed in July, and after that the project will be checked by experts," Khristenko told a May 30 meeting of cabinet members at Russian President Vladimir Putin's office in Moscow.

The first stage of construction—with a capacity of 30 million tonnes/year of oil—also will involve building an oil terminal in Perevoznaya Bay. Near the pipeline's terminus at Skovorodino, an oil-loading facility is being built to make it possible "to reload the first oil on this route to railway carriages that will carry it to the oil terminal" on the Pacific Coast, Khristenko said.

Khristenko said parallel discussions were under way with oil companies about use of the first stage's capacity and the possibility of connecting East Siberian deposits with the new infrastructure.

"These discussions are being held with the companies that have licenses to develop oil deposits in the region—Surgutneftegaz, Yukos, and a number of others—on later connecting their deposits in the area of Taishet and Kazachenskoye to the new infrastructure," the minister said.

Khristenko said this would make it possible to synchronize the oil companies' actions so that the second stage of construction should begin "with an understanding of the prospects of the load of the future oil pipeline."

He said, "The Ministry of Natural Resources is finalizing a program allowing the use of the East Siberian oil deposits that are not yet allocated so that they can form the main base for implementing the second stage of the project."

In parallel with the construction of the Taishet-Nakhodka pipeline, the existing oil pipeline system in the area from East Siberia to Taishet will be expanded, Khristenko continued.

"Decisions have been approved, including decisions on the Federal Tariffs Service," he said. According to Khristenko, the capacity of the oil pipeline system from East Siberia to Taishet will reach 30 million tonnes/year after the expansion.

Related development
In a related development, Surgutneftegaz has submitted for public discussion the project of an oil pipeline in Eastern Siberia from the Talakan oil deposit.

The terminus of the proposed pipeline is the city of Ust-Kut, on the Baikal-Amur Railway, where a loading terminal is planned for rail tank cars to link the terminal to the Eastern Siberia-Far East pipeline system.

The $1 billion project is to be completed in 2008 and will transport 26 million tonnes/year of crude.

The future oil pipeline will be 500 km long, with 70 km extending across the Yakutia Republic and 430 km in the Irkutsk Region. The head pumping station will be at the Talakan deposit, and there will be a further 13 pumps along the route.

Apart from the Talakan deposit, the pipeline might carry oil from other deposits, including the Verkhnechonsky deposit in the