Construction of Power of Siberia pipeline to begin in late August - source
MOSCOW. June 18 (Interfax) - A ceremony marking the beginning of the construction of Gazprom's Power of Siberia pipeline will take place on August 26 in Blagoveshchensk, several sources told Interfax.
Earlier it was said the ceremony might take place on July 7.
Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said in a company had a clear plan of action. "All responsibilities have been distributed and tight deadlines have been set," he said, adding that the company's goal was to make the first connection to Power of Siberia as soon as August.
Preparation is currently in full swing for developing infrastructure at the Chayandinskoye field and building a gas transportation system for Power of Siberia and a gas processing plant in Amur.
A unified logistics center will be created in summer in Ust-Kut for receiving and shipping equipment and materials necessary for developing the field's infrastructure. In July, the delivery of large-diameters pipes is planned to begin for the construction of Power of Siberia, and in winter - construction organizations will begin focusing on the most hard to reach areas for future work.
The Power of Siberia gas transport system, which has capacity of 64 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas per year and a length of 4,000 kilometers, will extend from the Irkutsk region through Yakutia to Khabarovsk. Between the cities of Svobodny and Blagoveshchensk, which are on the border with China, a branch pipe will be built for gas deliveries to China.
