The construction of the first stage of the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean oil pipeline is set to start in December, a subsidiary of Russia's pipeline monopoly Transneft said Friday.

The pipes for the pipeline, which links Taishet and Skovorodino, have been ordered and advance payments have been made, Mikhail Chemakin, general director of Transneft subsidiary Transsibneft, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as telling local administrative and railway officials.

"The oil companies have already listened to the voice of the ecologists and the public and rerouted the pipeline within six months. The pipe is not to be feared. It will be of significant benefit to the state, and as a result to you, Russians," Chemakin said.

The route of the pipeline would largely follow the Baikal-Amur railway, along which freight will be transported for the construction, and the Far East Railway should restore rail links and build high platforms.

The Russian government decided on Dec. 31, 2004 to build the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline, which will be built by stages and run about 4,000 kilometers in total length, most of it underground. The pipeline is designed to ship up to 80 million tons of oil per year with the use of railway capacities.

The first stage of the project is to build an oil pipeline from Taishet to Skovorodino and a railway oil terminal in Skovorodino.

The last stage, as eastern Siberian oil fields are developed, envisages organizing railway transit from Skovorodino and Perevoznaya and building a pipeline along that route.

Source: Xinhua