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Russia to decide on oil pipeline by year-end
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-05-02 08:45 The Russian government will make a decision on the
feasibility of the oil pipeline from Angarsk in Siberia to Nakhodka facing Japan
by the end of the year, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov said
Friday.
"By the end of the year a decision will be reached on the route of the
pipeline and on the preparation of a feasibility study for this project," Zhukov
said after meeting here with Japanese Economics, Trade and Industry Minister
Shoichi Nakagawa, Interfax news agency reported.
Zhukov said during discussion about the pipeline that the Japanese side
expressed its interest in the project, which will require major investment and
ecological studies.
Ecological issues of the project are currently being carefully examined, said
the deputy premier, stressing that the payback issue of the 4,000-kilometer
pipeline should be carefully calculated.
China and Russia have signed a framework agreement to build a pipeline
linking Russia's Angarsk to China's Daqing. However, the Kremlin became
ambiguous over the project after Japan offered a rival pipeline that would
bypass China and stretch to Russia's Far East port of Nakhodka. The third
possible route that will also transport crude from Russia's vast Siberian
reserves to the Asia- Pacific region is a pipeline to Nakhodka with a branch
line to China.
In March, Russia's state-owned oil transporting company Transneft proposed a
new route from Taishet, some 500 kilometers northwest of Angarsk, to Nakhodka
with a branch line to China.
However, none of these pipeline options have been decided yet, prompting
China and Japan to vie for access to Russia's abundant oil resources.
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