Now there will be a Chinese branch on the East Siberian-Pacific pipeline

Echo Moskvy, 26.07.2008

Moscow and Beijing have reached agreement to build a branch line from the oil pipeline from East Siberia to the Pacific, a spokesman for the Chinese national oil and gas corporation announced on Saturday.

Agreement in principle was reached, the Chinese side avers, after talks with deputy premier Igor Sechin. Putin’s deputy within the Russian government, with responsibility for the oil and gas complex, Sechin was on a working visit to China. Specialists expected that this would indeed be the key subject of the Sino-Russian energy dialogue. An unnamed source told Interfax that the technical problems had already been ironed out and even the issue of finance for the construction work was resolved. In his words, an appropriate Russian company was ready to start work on the project.

As NEWSru.com recalls, Mikhail Khodorkovsky insisted on a Chinese route for the pipeline when he still headed Yukos. Then, however, the Kremlin did not support the idea, believing it would result in dependence on a single customer.