The section linking Tynda in the Far East Amur Region and Aldan in Yakutia is part of a project designed to reroute a segment of the ambitious East Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline project, which came under attack earlier in the year over the environmental threat to nearby Lake Baikal.
"The expert commission of the Federal Service for the Oversight of the Environment, Technology and Nuclear Management has reached a positive conclusion on the second stage of the [extension] pipeline's construction, and has acknowledged its compliance with Russian environmental laws," the service said.
The expert commission said state-owned pipeline monopoly Transneft, which designed the project, must complete the construction of the 418-kilometer (260-mile) leg within five years.
President Vladimir Putin issued an order in April to reroute ESPO, which Russia is developing to pump oil from Siberia to Russia's Far East for exports to the Asia-Pacific region, particularly China. The initial route would have brought the pipeline to within 800 meters of Lake Baikal, the world's largest freshwater body.
The pipeline's path was moved about 400 kilometers (250 miles) away from the lake, and divided into three segments, following a series of discussions.
The construction of the 540-km (336 miles) first leg, which will connect Ust-Kut in the Irkutsk Region and the Talakan oilfield in East Siberia along the left bank of the River Lena, was approved last month and, is expected to begin in January 2007. The third leg will connect the Talakan oil field and Aldan.
The first stage of ESPO was launched in April this year, and was initially planed 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.
The Kozmino terminal on the Pacific coast and the Taishet-Skovorodino pipeline, with annual throughput capacity of 220.5 million barrels, constitutes the first stage of the project.
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.
In view of the extended pipeline route, the entire project's cost, initially estimated at $11.5 billion, needs to be revised.
