Alliance Oil refinery starts building branch from ESPO-2 pipeline
KHABAROVSK. March 20 (Interfax) - Alliance Oil's Khabarovsk Oil Refinery has begun building a branch from the Eastern Siberia - Pacific Ocean oil pipeline (ESPO), the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
The second phase of construction work on the 28-km branch from the ESPO-2 trunk oil pipeline to the Khabarovsk refinery began in March, the company said.
A tenth of the pipeline branch will be within city limits. This part of the project will be done using microtunnelling technology, which involves laying a "pipe within a pipe." The microtunnel will be at a depth of 10 meters below the surface. This technology will increase the safety of the pipeline, the company said.
The other, "traditional" section of the pipeline branch will run 25.2 km through the Khabarovsk district. Contractors have begun working on this section.
Under the first phase of the project, the company is building an oil transfer and receiving point near the NPS-34 oil pumping station of ESPO-2 on the outskirts of the town of Smirnovka in Khabarovsk district.
The company plans to complete construction by the beginning of 2014. Interfax has been unable to ascertain the cost of the project.
The branch is supposed to carry 2 million tonnes of crude in 2014 and 5 million tonnes per year starting in 2015. In future, volume could increase to 6 million tonnes per year.
It was reported earlier that crude shipments from ESPO to the Khabarovsk refinery, to begin in 2014, would initially amount to 4.5 million tonnes, and then be increased to 7.5 million tonnes. The refinery currently has capacity of 4.35 million tonnes per year.