Anatoly Medetsky
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has signed off on
a plan to build a $3.6 billion Arctic pipeline to new oil fields
that could produce a sizable share of Russia's current output by
the end of the decade.
State oil pipeline monopoly Transneft will
complete the Zapolyarye-Purpe link by 2017, according to a
government decree, Interfax reported Thursday. Putin signed the
decree Nov. 18, the report said.
LUKoil, TNK-BP and Gazprom Neft will use the
pipeline, whose capacity will be 45 million tons per year, to carry
oil from fields in Yamal they plan to develop.
The fields could produce at least 74 million
tons of oil by 2020, Transneft president Nikolai Tokarev said last
month. That would be 15 percent of Russia's current output of about
500 million tons. The 500-kilometer pipeline will connect them to
Russia's pipeline system, allowing exports both to Europe and Asia,
he said.
Sergei Vakhrameyev, an oil analyst
at Metropol, said the new Arctic oil would flow wherever it can
sell at the best price — and that is now Asia.
Analysts at InvestCafe also gave the impression
that there was no more likely destination than Asia, by way of the
East Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline. The new fields will not only
make the Asia-bound supply more reliable, but also will "support
the quality of the exported oil," Grigory Birg and Vitaly
Mikhalchuk wrote in a note to investors.
Tokarev said last month that construction could
begin in November.
Transneft will fund the work alone, a change
from last year's plan to share the investment with TNK-BP, Gazprom
Neft and LUKoil.
Under the government decree, the Federal Tariffs
Service will let Transneft recoup its rising expenses by increasing
pipeline fees.
Another Transneft pipeline project, Baltic
Pipeline System-2, is coming to an end next month. Designed to
bypass Belarus in Europe-bound exports, the pipeline will initially
be able to handle 30 million tons per year, filling the first
100,000-ton tanker by the end of this year, Tokarev said last
week.
The project's second stage will expand the
pipeline's capacity to 38 million tons a year by 2014.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/pipeline-to-carry-15-of-output/448600.html#ixzz1ej722Myp