Pipeliners

MOSCOW, May 30 (RIA Novosti) - The first section of the so-called Eastern pipeline linking the Taishet oil field (East Siberia) with the port of Nakhodka (Far East) will be completed in 2008, Russian Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko said at President Vladimir Putin's meeting with government members. The pipeline blueprints should be ready in July 2005, he added. The government made a decision on the construction of the Taishet-Nakhodka pipeline on December 31, 2004, Khristenko said. On April 26, 2005, the Industry and Energy Ministry signed a decree on the stages of the pipeline construction coordinated with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Economic Development and Trade Ministry. "The first section of the oil pipeline will link Taishet in the west with Skovorodino (a town in the Amur region, 75 kilometers north from the Russian-Chinese border) in the east," Khristenko said. "The capacity of the first section is 30 million tons. It will be loaded with West Siberian oil," he added. According to the minister, "the construction of a synchronous oil-filling terminal which can pipe 30 million tons of crude oil is a key aspect of the first stage." An oil-loading rack is being built near Skovorodino to load oil into tank cars and bring it to the oil-filling terminal, Khristenko said. Surgutneftegaz and Yukos having oil fields in East Siberia may join this project in the future. It will synchronize activities of oil producers to let them see the capacity of the second section from Skovorodino to Nakhodka (a port on the western coast of the Sea of Japan 90 kilometers to the east of Vladivostok). "The Ministry of Natural Resources is to complete the coordination of the program on the use of East Siberian oil fields which have not been distributed yet. These fields should form the basis of the functioning of the second section of the Eastern pipeline," Khristenko said. The existing capacities of pipelines linking West Siberia with Taishet will be extended to 30 million tons, he added. It will be done by means of attracting resources without special decisions of the government and preferential measures. President Putin, in turn, said that the pipeline construction plans should be synchronized with intentions of the Russian Railways company to increase cargo traffic on this direction. Meanwhile, Japan can refuse to finance the East Siberian-Pacific pipeline if Russia decides to build a branch line to China first. Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Shoichi Nakagawa said: "If the pipeline is stopped halfway it may never reach Japan. I told Russia that we would not be able to spend money of our taxpayers on such a risky project."