The first leg of the Eastern Siberia-Pacific project, operated by Russian state-owned oil pipeline monopoly Transneft [RTS: TRNF], was launched in April this year, and is expected to be completed in the second half of 2008. It will link Taishet, in the Eastern Siberian region of Irkutsk, to Skovorodino, in the Amur region, in Russia's Far East.
"Some 430 kilometers (267 miles) of pipeline has been laid as of today," Transneft CEO Semyon Vainshtock told President Vladimir Putin at a meeting. "We have already built an oil pumping station in Taishet, and will launch it within the next five days. Up to now, we have been able to stay on schedule."
"In April, we are to start construction of an oil terminal at Kozmino Bay, on the Pacific coast, and we see no reason why we should fail to do so [on time]," he said.
The Kozmino terminal and the Taishet-Skovorodino pipeline, with an annual pumping capacity of 220.5 million barrels, constitute the first leg of the project.
The second leg will involve the construction of a Skovorodino-Kozmino pipeline, to pump 367.5 million barrels per year, and the increase of the Taishet-Skovorodino pipeline's capacity to 588 million barrels.
Initially estimated to cost $11.5 billion, the pipeline requires further investment now that its original route via Lake Baikal has been modified under pressure from environmentalists to lessen its impact on the ecosystem of the world's largest fresh water body.
