Russia to build oil pipeline to Pacific, supply Japan
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-11-21 11:43

Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed on Monday that Moscow plans to build a major oil pipeline from Siberia to the Pacific coast and said oil supplies would eventually flow to major consumer Japan.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) meets Olympic judo gold medallist Yasuhiro Yamashita of Japan at an art exhibition in Tokyo November 20, 2005. [Reuters]

"We plan to build the pipeline to the Pacific coast with eventual supplies to the Asia-Pacifc region including Japan," Putin said in a speech at a Russia-Japan investors forum in Tokyo.

Russia is building a 4,130-km (2,566 miles), $11.5 billion pipeline across Siberia that will pump 80 million tonnes of oil a year (1.6 million barrels per day) to the Pacific.

State pipeline monopoly Transneft is building it in two stages. It expects to finish the first stage at Skovorodino, far from the coast but close to China, in 2008.

Japan has been keen to win a promise that Russia would carry on construction to a port in the Pacific, while China wants the pipeline to head south into its industrial north. No date has been set for the second stage.