Transneft to Build 7 Espo Stations in 2007

IRKUTSK. Jan 30 (Interfax) – Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft (RTS: TRNF) is to build seven oil pumping stations as part of the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline system in 2007, the ESPO Project Management Center said in a press release.

Three pumping stations will be located in Irkutsk region and three in Yakutia, with one in Amur region. Reservoir capacity is planned for three stations: the Taishet Main Oil Pumping Station (total capacity – 260,000 cubic meters); Oil Pumping Station No. 10 (260,000 cubic meters) and Skovorodino Oil Pumping Station (310,000 cubic meters).

The press release said that the Main Oil Pumping Station, five kilometers from Taishet in Irkutsk region, would be the first to be launched. Close to this city the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline intersects the Transsibneft trunk oil pipeline connecting Omsk and Angarsk.

Transneft is planning to build the 4,000-kilometer East Siberia- Pacific Ocean oil pipeline to sell Russian oil to countries in the Pacific region. The pipeline’s 800- kilometer section, which will link the Taishet station and the border with the republic of Buryatia to the north of Lake Baikal, will transit the Irkutsk region. The pipeline will also stretch across the Chita and Amur regions, as well as Khabarovsk and Primorye territories. Nearly half of the pipeline will be built along the border with China. The project’s first stage envisions building a Taishet-Skovorodino oil pipeline with a capacity of 30 million tonnes of oil a year and the Kozmino oil sea port.

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