Ministry proposes building Kuyumba-Taishet in two stages due to insufficient oil - source
MOSCOW. Sept 2 (Interfax) - The Russian Energy Ministry is proposing to revise the timeframe for completing the project to build the Kuyumba-Taishet oil pipeline due to the insufficient resource base to fill the pipeline.
A source at a relevant government agency told Interfax that the Energy Ministry has drafted a government order to this effect and submitted it for approval.
The ministry is proposing to design and build a pipeline with capacity of up to 8.6 million tonnes of oil per year in the initial stage, with completion in the fourth quarter of 2016. The second phase would involve the construction of a pipeline with capacity of up to 15 million tonnes per year with completion at the end of 2023.
If the amount of oil shipped exceeds pipeline capacity in 2022-2023, the ministry proposes to use anti-turbulence additives.
Splitting the Kuyumba-Taishet pipeline project into stages will make it possible to optimize the capital and operating expenditures of oil pipeline monopoly Transneft while providing the level of transport required by oil companies, the source said.
Under Transneft's tentative agreements with companies developing the Kuyumba and Yurubcheno-Tokhomskoye fields, oil will begin to be fed into the pipeline in 2018 in the amount of 1.1 million tonnes, which is expected to increase to 9.9 million tonnes in 2023 and top 11 million tonnes in 2024.
The Kuyumba-Taishet pipeline is being built to feed oil from new fields in Eastern Siberia into the Eastern Siberia - Pacific Ocean oil pipeline system. Initially, according to a government order, the pipeline with capacity of up to 15 million tonnes was supposed to be launched in the fourth quarter of 2016. Under the initial plan, on which Transneft based its designs, the pipeline was supposed to carry 9.5 million tonnes of oil in 2017. The main shippers of oil through the new pipeline will be Rosneft and Slavneft .
The cost of the Kuyumba-Taishet pipeline is estimated at 124.2 billion rubles.