The company is considering building the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline terminal "on the Kozmino Bay, and is also completing a feasibility study for an oil terminal on the Perevoznaya Bay, taking into account government expert reports," a ministry source said.
The ESPO pipeline, which will supply oil to Asia-Pacific region, has met with strong opposition. At the end of May, Russia's Supreme Court rejected an appeal by environmental organizations asking it to strike down a government decision of December 31, 2004, on the construction of the pipeline. The groups said the document could not be approved before a state ecological expert assessment had been carried out.
President Vladimir Putin said in late April that the pipeline should pass outside the drainage basin north of Lake Baikal, the world's largest body of fresh water and an environmentally sensitive zone on Unesco's list of World Heritage Site, upsetting Transneft's previous plans.
Engineers chose the longest variant for the new ESPO route, with the pipe passing 200km from Baikal. The bypass route will be 1,920 km long and will pass through the Irkutsk Region, Yakutia and the Amur Region.
The pipeline is slated to pump up to 80 million metric tons of crude a year (1.6 mln bbl/d) from Siberia to Russia's Far East, which will then be exported to the Asia-Pacific region, in particular energy-hungry China.
The first stage of the project will connect Taishet in the Irkutsk Region to Skovorodino in the Amur Region in the Far East.
