Pipeliners

MOSCOW, April 25 (RIA Novosti) - Rosneft will send more than 100 million barrels of crude from East Siberia via a pipeline to be constructed in the country's Far East, the state-owned oil company's vice president said Tuesday. "We are waiting for the oil pipeline [to come into being], and intend to use it for supplying crude to foreign markets and to a refinery on the Amur River," Alexander Sapronov said. At the moment, oil from Siberia can only be delivered to the Pacific Coast by rail. The Vankorsk oilfield, in Siberia's Krasnoyarsk Territory, has an estimated 2,920 million barrels in proven reserves. Production is to start here in 2010, with the annual output expected at 140 million barrels. The deposit is being developed by a Rosneft subsidiary, Vankorneft. The new pipeline will pump Siberian crude to countries of the Asia-Pacific Rim, particularly energy-hungry China. Pipeline operator Transneft said it would announce the winner of a contract for the $11.5bln project later on Tuesday.