Oil Production of 80 Mln Tonnes for Espo Pipe Will Be Reached in 2025
MOSCOW. March 14 (Interfax) – Production of oil at fields in Eastern Siberia and Yakutia, which will be the resource base for the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline, may amount to about 40 million tonnes by 2015, and up to 80 million tonnes by 2025, the Russian Industry and Energy Ministry said in a statement.
Deputy Industry and Energy Minister Andrei Dementiev said at a meeting on the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline in Yakutia on Wednesday that expenditure on a program for the exploration and development of hydrocarbon fields in Eastern Siberia amounts to $102 billion, including $23 billion on preparing oil reserves.
He said that large Russian oil companies have expressed their readiness to transport Western Siberian oil through the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline in sufficient volumes for the first section of the pipeline to operate (up to 30 million tonnes of oil per year).
“For the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline to reach its capacity of 80 million tonnes and to increase the effectiveness of its use it is necessary to gradually start to develop fields in Eastern Siberia, including those in Yakutia,” he said.
The deputy minister said that lack of access for the Russian trunk pipeline system to the Pacific coast is a factor holding back the development of oil and gas resources in Eastern Siberia and the expansion of Russian exports to countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
The Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline is aimed at resolving this problem. Dementiev said that this project would give Russia 6%- 6.5% of the oil market in the Asia-Pacific region.
He also said that construction of the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline would make it possible to increase capacity utilization at the Komsomolsk and Khabarovsk oil refineries. “The expedience of supplying oil to the Komsomolsk Oil refinery from the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline needs to be duly evaluated,” he said.
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