Pipeliners

BEIJING, July 10 (RIA Novosti) - The capacity of a Chinese leg of the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline (ESPO) could reach 30 million tons (220 million bbl) a year, Russia's industry and energy minister said Tuesday. "There is an opportunity to build a Chinese leg from Skovorodino [in the Russian Far East] as part of the project," Viktor Khristenko said. "At the first stage its capacity could amount to 15 million tons (110 million bbl), and if the entire system is developed the capacity could hit 30 million (220 million bbl)." The ambitious East Siberia-Pacific Ocean oil pipeline, managed by state-run oil pipe operator Transneft, 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. Khristenko said Transneft and China National Petroleum Corporation were cooperating successfully in designing the pipeline branch from Skovorodino Bay to the border with China, adding that the construction could begin in 2008. During the first stage of the project's implementation, oil will be pumped from Taishet, in the East Siberian region of Irkutsk, to Skovorodino, in the Amur Region, in Russia's Far East, where it will be reloaded onto railway tankers for delivery to Kozmino Bay on Russia's Pacific Coast. The second stage will involve the construction of a Skovorodino-Kozmino pipeline, to pump 367.5 million barrels per year, and an increase in the Taishet-Skovorodino pipeline's capacity to 588 million barrels. To date, Transneft has built 940 kilometers (584 miles) of the ESPO pipeline, whose total length is more than 4,770 kilometers (2,965 miles). Earlier, Transneft CEO Semyon Vainshtok said a branch to China would cost $436 million.