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Fradkov Needs Money of Oils for Ambitious Pipeline
More crude oil is needed so that the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean Oil Pipeline could attain the project capacity in line with the schedule. To launch this project at least by 2025, Eastern Siberia should step up annual crude production by 50 million tons, paying $102 billion for it. In 2006, the region’s funding by oil companies accounted for just 30 percent of the scheduled amount. So, the only way out is to enforce investments on business, Fradkov made clear.
The grandiose project of Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean Oil Pipeline (ESPO) is on the verge of disruption, Russia’s PM Mikhail Fradkov officially acknowledged for the first time yesterday. Fradkov arrived at this disappointing conclusion 50km from Yakutia’s Neryungri, when inspecting the pipeline building site.
With today’s production from fields of Eastern Siberia and Yakutia, the pipeline will have no more than roughly 30 million tons of crude oil, which will suffice only for its first stage, calculated Alexey Varlamov, deputy natural resources minister.
In Yakutia, Fradkov saw 730km of the laid pipes. The first stage of the pipeline running from Taishet to Skovorodino (2,700km) is estimated at $11 billion and is scheduled for putting into operation in December 2008.
But the ambition of government and Transneft materially widens when it comes to the second stage of ESPO. The plans are that this pipeline will have the annual capacity of 80 million tons of crude oil by 2012. The main difficulty is where to get so much crude in Eastern Siberia. Deputy Industry and Energy Minister Andrey Dementiev promised to fill the pipeline only by 2020 to 2025, pointing out, however, that it would require $102 billion from budget and private investors by 2020. With such funding, Eastern Siberia will be producing 40 million tons of crude oil by 2015 and 80 million tons by 2025, the official said.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 14, 2007
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