MOSCOW, July 13 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's largest state-owned savings bank, Sberbank, which won a tender in June 2007, will open two credit lines totaling $8 billion for Transneft [RTS: TRNF], the country's state-controlled pipeline operator, the company said in a report Friday.
Transneft said it would use seven-year and 18-month credit lines, worth 145 billion rubles ($5.7 billion) and 65 billion rubles ($2.5 billion), respectively, to finance projects to build the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) oil pipeline and other pipelines approved by the Russian government.
The ESPO pipeline, whose construction is currently underway, is designed to pump Russian crude to the Asia-Pacific region.
