Further Cooperation Possible With Chinese Contractors at Espo – Transneft

MADRID. June 30 (Interfax) – Russia’s Transneft (RTS: TRNF) could continue its cooperation with Chinese contractors in the construction of the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean oil pipeline (ESPO), Transneft President Nikolai Tokarev said.

Chinese contractors are completing their work, he said. “They have gathered themselves up and are working steadily. If they decide to work further, we’ll not object,” he said.

Transneft was reportedly displeased with the quality of the work done by the contractors building the ESPO, while Krasnodarstroitransgaz-Vostok – the general contractor – is said to have suspended a contract with the China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau (CPP). A spokesman for the Chinese company acknowledged that the company had failed to do the work fully over customs problems and difficulty in securing quotas for the arrival of 1,750 Chinese personnel in Russia.

An agreement on the Chinese company’s participation in the construction of the ESPO was signed in April 2007. The company was to lay a 170-kilometer stretch of the pipeline. The entire work is to be completed before October 25, 2008.

(c) 2008 Daily News Bulletin; Moscow – English. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.