Environmentalists have opposed the $11.5 billion energy project, which will be run by Russia's state-owned oil pipeline monopoly Transneft, over the pipeline's proximity, about 800 meters, to Lake Baikal, the world's largest fresh water body. Activists have called for the pipeline route to be moved further away from the unique lake, which is also on the Unesco World Heritage List.
Government representatives said in court that the order on the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline was a framework resolution, which did not require a separate environmental study. They added that the federal environmental oversight service had recently approved the project, which is of great economic and political importance for Russia.
The environmental organizations said they would appeal the court ruling in the next 10 days.
On January 25, the federal oversight service rejected a critical environmental impact report from an environmental commission on the pipeline, which cited numerous concerns including seismic hazards. Moreover, the report said a feasibility study had failed to mention the possible environmental impact of a fire or any other accident that could affect the pipeline and did not contain any related figures.
Commission member Gennady Chegasov said the pipeline, which will be the longest in the world, was to transport about 9,000 metric tons of oil an hour. "This is the amount of oil that would spill into the lake in the event of an accident," he said.
In late February, the commission signed off its negative environmental assessment of the project's feasibility study but the federal service extended the term of the commission's work and included new members. A few days later, the commission in its new format approved the feasibility study of the project.
The "eastern" pipeline is expected to pump up to 80 million metric tons a year (1.6 mln of bbl/d) from Siberia to the Russian Far East before being sent on to the Asia-Pacific region to Japan and energy-hungry China. The first stage of the pipeline's construction was initially expected to be completed by the end of 2008.
Russian state-owned oil major Rosneft won licenses in February to develop three oil and natural gas deposits in Siberia, which will be used as the main source to fill the strategic oil pipeline.
