Russia launched the construction of its longest oil pipeline from eastern Siberia to the Pacific Ocean on Friday, the builder said in the Siberian city of Irkutsk.

"The first pipe coupling has been welded," a representative of Transneft, the project operator, was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying.

The construction was launched near the town of Taishet, Irkutsk region.

"This is part of the working process, but it symbolizes a lot," said Anatoly Bezverkhov, director-general of the Center for the Management of the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) Project, which is a subsidiary of Transneft,

The oil pipeline will run from Taishet along a 4,000 km-route, to give Russia access to countries of the Asian-Pacific region.

Its annual capacity will be 80 million tons. The end point of the pipeline will be a transshipment terminal near the port of Nakhodka, which will be able to handle tankers with the deadweight of up to 300,000 tons.

Oil will be exported from there to Japan, South Korea and other countries. Meanwhile, an extension of the pipeline will be built from Skovorodino to China.

The oil pipeline will be completed late in 2008. The total value of the project is estimated at 16 billion dollars.

Putin ordered on Wednesday that the Transneft moves the pipeline 40 km away from Lake Baikal instead of initial 800 meters. It will now go outside Baikal's water intake and seismic zones, which was a major demand of ecologists and local authorities.

The decision completely changes the budget of the project. Transneft Vice President Sergei Grigoryev said it was unclear so far how much the new route will increase the cost.

"During a year we shall make a feasibility study and the total construction cost will be clear after that," he said.

But general director of ESPO Management Center, Dmitry Ogulchansky, told journalists that the cost of building the first phase of the pipeline may increase by about one billion U.S. dollars due to the change of route.

He said that probably the new pipeline route will leave Irkutsk region along the Lena River through Yakutia.

He also said that the decision to move the pipeline 40 km north of Baikal may extend the route by about 1250-1260 km.

Initially the pipeline will pump crude from West Siberia along the existing Omsk-Irkutsk pipeline that will join the new project in Taishet. In future hydrocarbons from East Siberia and Yakutia will be added.

Transneft said 22 million tons of Rosneft Company crude and eight million tons of Surgutneftegaz Company will be pumped at the initial stage.

Source: Xinhua