Surgutneftegaz studies oil pipeline expansions

Oct. 8, 2007
Russia’s Surgutneftegaz, entering discussions over the feasibility of the planned East Siberia Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline, said it can ensure production of 3 million tonnes/year of oil for transportation via the line.

Russia’s Surgutneftegaz, entering discussions over the feasibility of the planned East Siberia Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline, said it can ensure production of 3 million tonnes/year of oil for transportation via the line.

Surgutneftgaz has invested about 50 billion rubles in Talakan fields in northwest Yakutia, where oil will be transported via a 40-km spur to the main ESPO pipeline. A similar spur will be laid from its Verkhnechonsk fields in northern lrkutsk.

The two sets of fields, which have total estimated reserves of 325 million tonnes, together will contribute about 10%/year to filling the first phase of the ESPO line, which will have an initial annual capacity of 30 million tonnes.

Phase 1 of the ESPO pipeline, from Taishet in the Irkutsk region to Skovorodino in the Amur region, will begin operation in late 2008, when 15 million tonnes of oil will be delivered through a spur from Skovorodino to China and an additional 15 million tonnes by rail to Kozmino on the Pacific coast.

In Phase 2 of the ESPO, throughput capacity of the Taishet-Skovorodino pipeline will be boosted to 80 million tonnes and another pipeline, to carry 50 million tonnes, will be built from Skovorodino to Kozmino. Branches also will be built to refineries in Khabarovsk and Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Russia has long said that the beginning of Phase 2 depends on the results of exploration in eastern Siberia.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Fuel and Energy Ministry estimates that Phase 2 could be commissioned in 2015-17, and in September, state-run pipeline company OAO Transneft said it is ready to start designing Phase 2.

Transneft Chief Executive Officer Semyon Vainshtok told Russia’s President Vladimir Putin: “We are now waiting for a decision of the Cabinet to get down to the job. We are ready to start the work.” He said the company has laid more than 1,130 km of pipe, with work under way on all sections of the route in the Yakutia, Amur, and Irkutsk regions.

In August Russia’s minister of industry and energy said that Russian Railways should prepare design estimates on the construction of Khmilovskiy passing-track which will be necessary for oil to be transshipped to the Pacific coast before construction of the ESPO’s second phase.

Last month, Rosneft Deputy President Dmitry Bogdanchikov said Russia should restrict the volumes of oil it plans to transport to China via ESPO (OGJ Online, Sept. 18, 2007).