Pipeliners

Russia may provide oil to China through a branch from a main pipeline despite last year's decision to build the pipeline from East Siberia to the Pacific Ocean port of Nakhodka to supply Japan, said Zhang Guobao, vice-chairman of China's National Development and Reform Commission.Zhang, speaking at a business forum in Beijing, said the Russian government had decided "to export more crude oil to more countries", France Press agency reported. "This doesn't mean that Russia has given up the option of (supplying oil) from a place in Russia to (northeastern China's) Daqing," he said.