A rival proposal, backed by Russia’s biggest oil company, Yukos Oil, to build a pipeline to China and give it exclusive access to the oil may be abandoned. However Japan, which has offered to help fund the Pacific pipeline, has not received confirmation from Russia, according to Seiji Murata, the vice minister for economy, trade and industry. The 3,900-m route to Nakhodka is favoured by Transneft and Rosneft, Russia’s largest state-owned oil producer, because it would open future oil sales to a wider range of buyers and lift prices. The Pacific route supports Russia’s plan to expand its share of the US market, on both the East and West coasts. The route to the Pacific port of Nakhodka would join an existing network at the town of Taishet, NW of Angarsk, the starting point for southern routes proposed earlier; the earlier proposals for the east-bound pipeline, including the link to China, involved a route along the southern coast of Lake Baikal, and were rejected because of the danger to the environment from possible spills.