Pipeliners

NERYUNGRI (Yakutia), March 13 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's state pipeline operator Transneft said Tuesday it has built 730 kilometers (453 miles) of the 4,700-kilometer (2,920-mile) Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean oil pipeline. Transneft First Vice President Vladimir Kalinin spoke at a meeting held by Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov on the development of the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline. The ESPO pipeline is slated to pump up to 1.6 million barrels per day of crude from Siberia to Russia's Far East, which will then be sent on to China and the Asia-Pacific region. Kalinin said the ESPO project was launched in April 2006 and the first leg of the pipeline, 2,700 km (1,677mile) long and estimated at $1 billion, will be commissioned in December 2008. It will link Taishet, in the Eastern Siberian region of Irkutsk, to Skovorodino, in the Amur region, in Russia's Far East. At the same time, Fradkov said he was unhappy with the pace of the development of oil deposits in Eastern Siberia for the needs of the ESPO project. Fradkov said the Ministry for Natural Resources will submit calculations to the government before July 1, 2007 on oil volumes required to fill the ESPO pipeline, adding that extra efforts were needed for the purpose. Deputy Natural Resources Minister Alexei Varlamov told the meeting that the oil reserves explored in Eastern Siberia would suffice to supply crude for the pipeline's first leg in the amount of 30 million metric tons (219.9 million barrels) a year. "The mineral resource base in that region needs to be built up to fill the oil pipeline's second leg with up to 80 million metric tons (586.4 million barrels) a year," Varlamov said, adding that mineral deposit users failed to be up to the hopes placed upon them. In turn, Fradkov urged relevant ministries and department to investigate deposit users more frequently. "There must be no unprincipled deposit users, because [earlier] all wanted [to develop deposits in Eastern Siberia] and displayed an interest, but are now failing to comply with their obligations," Fradkov said. At the same time, Sergei Kudryashov, first vice president of the state-controlled crude producer Rosneft, said his company was prepared to supply 20 million metric tons of oil (146.6 million barrels) a year for the ESPO pipeline by 2012. Kudryashov said Rosneft intended to begin oil supplies from the Vankor deposit in Eastern Siberia as early as 2008. In turn, Vladimir Bogdanov, president of oil producer Surgutneftegaz, said his company intended to produce more than 3.5 million metric tons (25.7 million barrels) at the Talakan oil field in Eastern Siberia in 2008, and to bring up oil deliveries for the ESPO pipeline to 7 million metric tons (51.3 million barrels) a year by 2010. Andrei Dementyev, deputy industry and energy minister, said Russia will be able to claim 6-6.5% of the Asian crude market once the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline is launched.