MOSCOW, April 18 (RIA Novosti) - The head of state-owned oil company Rosneft said Tuesday the company could pump 27 million tons of oil per year through the Siberia-Pacific oil pipeline by August 30, 2008.

CEO Sergei Bogdanchikov also told President Vladimir Putin that an oil refinery would be built on the Pacific coast terminal of the pipeline.

"A feasibility study is under way and a formal decision should be made soon," he said.

The head of the Federal Agency for the Management of Mineral Resources said separately that the East Siberia-Pacific oil pipeline could pump up to 35-40 million tons per year by 2020.

"East Siberia has sufficient oil deposits for the pipeline's capacity to be raised to 35-40 million tons by 2020, and 12 million tons by 2008," Anatoly Ledovskikh said, adding that the increase would be done stepwise.

The Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline will carry up to 80 million metric tons a year (1.6 mln of bbl/d) from Taishet in Irkutsk Region to Perevoznaya Bay in Primorye Territory, via the Amur-Region town of Skovorodino. Estimated to cost $11.5 billion, the pipeline could also supply oil to the Asia-Pacific region, most likely Japan and energy-hungry China.

The first stage of the pipeline's construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2008.