Siberian oil pipeline’s second stage could begin in late 2009

Tue, 6 May 2008

CONSTRUCTION OF the second stage of the oil pipeline being built from East Siberia to the Pacific Ocean could begin in the second half of 2009, according to a company spokesman speaking in early March. The East Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline project is being planned to transport up to 1.6m brl/d of crude oil from Siberia to Russia’s Far East, and then on to China and the Asia-Pacific region. “The project’s feasibility study is to undergo an expert evaluation in December, 2008. If the Russian government gives a special instruction, we could launch the construction of the project’s second stage in the second half of 2009,” Sergei Sergeyev, head of the ESPO-2 project management centre, said.

Mr Sergeyev said the project's second stage was estimated at about $13 billion in 2006 prices, and would take at least four years. The first stage of the ESPO involves construction of a 2,757-km pipeline with capacity of 220.5m brl/yr of oil, linking Taishet, in East Siberia's Irkutsk Region, to Skovorodino, in the Amur Region in Russia's Far East. Estimated at costing $11 billion, this first phase was expected to be commissioned in December, 2008. However, project operator Transneft said on 7 February that the commissioning of the project would be delayed from late 2008 to late 2009. The second phase will run for 2,100km from Skovorodino to the Pacific, and will be able to transport 367.5m brl/yr. This phase also plans an increase in the Taishet-Skovorodino pipeline's capacity to 588m brl/yr.