Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent
LOS ANGELES, June 20 – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said strict deadlines and quality standards must be met in construction of the Eastern Siberia Pacific Ocean (ESPO) oil pipeline, and contractors who fail to meet commitments would face certain consequences.
"There must be no failures either as regards deadlines or as regards quality," said Medvedev at a meeting in the Kremlin with Nikolai Tokarev, president of OAO Transneft, operator of the Russian pipeline.
Contractors who fail to carry out assignments will be "taken to task" via lawsuits and refunds of advance payment by the state, Medvedev said.
There must be no delays and no inferior work to be redone because the pipeline is "an important artery" for Russia's economic, social, and political development, said the Russian president.
Tokarev said the second phase of construction from Skovorodino near the border with China to Kozmino on Russia's Pacific Coast will start in December 2009.
The first phase of construction linking Taishet in the Irkutsk region and Skovorodino began in April 2006 and is slated to be finished by yearend 2009. Meanwhile, Kozmino port facilities are now under construction and are to be completed in December 2009.
Until the line's second phase is completed, some 15 million tones/year of East Siberian crude will be transported by rail from Skovorodino to Kozmino for shipment to markets in Asia Pacific.
Last month, Beijing and Moscow agreed in principle on construction of a pipeline spur to China from Skovorodino (OGJ Online, May 23, 2008).
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].