Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent
LOS ANGELES, Apr. 27 -- Russia's Industry and Energy Ministry has announced it will construct an oil pipeline from Tayshet in central Siberia to Skovorodino in the Amur region, about 70 km from the Chinese border.
Officials did not announce a construction starting date but said the pipeline could become the first leg of a line to Perevoznaya on the Sea of Japan, assuming enough oil is discovered to fill it (OGJ Online, Jan. 17, 2005).
Anatoly Yanovskiy, director of the ministry's fuel and energy department, announced the decision.
"Construction of the first stage of the pipeline is due to be finished by the middle of 2008," Yanovskiy said Apr. 27 during talks at the Natural Resources Ministry about the program for developing oil and gas reserves in eastern Siberia.
However, Yanovskiy said construction on to Perevoznaya would depend on the results of geological studies. The proposed 4,180 km oil pipeline from eastern Siberia to the Pacific Ocean might stop at Skovordino if oil exploration results are disappointing, he said.
The decision follows an Apr. 22 announcement by Japan's Minister for Economy, Trade, and Industry Shoichi Nakagawa who threatened to withdraw financial backing for the longer pipeline after learning a spur to China might be completed first (OGJ Online, Apr. 22, 2005).
Moscow had assured Tokyo at yearend 2004 that it would construct an oil pipeline to Nakhodka near Perevoznaya. That longer, more costly line would enable Russian oil to reach a broader Asia-Pacific market than an earlier route promoted by the Chinese government that would terminate at Daqing, in northeast China.