"We have not received any guarantees yet. We have sent them letters and are waiting for replies," Semyon Vainshtok told reporters Monday during an interval at an investment conference organized by Renaissance Capital.
Vainshtok said oil companies' guarantees were necessary to start talks on the project and discuss the pipeline's capacity.
"If they can provide 15 million metric tons, we agree to that; if they provide 25 metric tons, we will agree to that figure," said Vainshtok.
Leonid Fedun, Vice President of the Russian oil major LUKoil, said guarantees might come once the business plan for the project was put together.
The Northern Oil Pipeline is to be laid from Kharyagi, Republic of Komi, in Russia's northeast, to Indiga in the White Sea. The pipe measures 467 km long and 820 mm in diameter, with a pumping capacity of 24 million metric tons of oil a year.
The pipeline will end in an oil terminal comprised of a storage plant, dock facilities, and an underwater oil pipe.
The project will cost an estimated $2.2 billion.
