Over 400 kilometers of ESPO pipeline filled with crude

Irkutsk, June 21 (Itar-Tass) -- Over 400 kilometers of the East
Siberia - Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline have been filled with crude, a
source at the ESPO Project Management Center told Itar-Tass on Friday.
The connection of the ESPO head segment to the Transneft operating
network began on April 2 near the town of Taishet, where Omsk-Irkutsk and
Krasnoyarsk-Irkutsk pipelines had been laid.

The crude had reached the area between the rivers Angara and Lena and
moved farther on to the East.

Transneft CEO Nikolai Tokarev told President Dmitry Medvedev on June
16 that 1,100 kilometers of the ESPO pipeline, from Taishet to the Talakan
field in western Yakutia, would be filled with crude by the end of this
September and it would be possible to use the pipeline in the 'reverse'
mode.

According to Surgutneftegaz and Verkhnechonskneftegaz, about 220,000
tonnes of crude will be supplied to the ESPO this year, including 180,000
from the Talakan field and almost 40,000 from the Verkhnechonsk field.

It is planned to commission the ESPO first line with the length of
about 2,700 kilometers from the Irkutsk region to Skovorodino in the Amur
region in the end of next year.

According to the Transneft website, the project for the oil pipeline
system Eastern Siberia - Pacific Ocean is being developed in accordance
with the Russian energy strategy for the period until 2020 and based upon
analysis of long term forecasts of oil production and consumption in the
Russian Federation and future demand on Asia-Pacific markets.

By order of the Russian government, the Oil Transporting Joint Stock
Company Transneft has developed a statement of intent to build the
pipeline system and the feasibility study is underway.

The Tomsk region and the Khanty-Mansi autonomous district in West
Siberia as well as oil provinces of Eastern Siberia form the resource base
for the new oil pipeline system. The largest provinces are
Leno-Tungusskaya and Khatango-Viliuyskaya.

Inside the Tomsk region there are 92 oil fields have been developed
and another 19 are to be developed yet. In Khanty-Mansiisk district there
are 26 explored fields. The most of explored resources are located in the
Irkutsk region and Evenkiya, the Krasnoyarsk territory and the Republic of
Sakha - Yakutia. The oil input into the system may reach 56 millions tons
a year considering the consumption of the regions.
The reference direction for the system is the Asia-Pacific region -
promptly growing segment of world's crude oil and oil products market. The
year 2002 has show 992 million tonnes in consumption of crude and products
in the Asia Pacific region, which is some 28% of world's demand. The
largest oil consumers are China, Japan, South Korea, India, Indonesia and
Australia. According to forecasts the consumption of oil and oil products
in the region will grow up to 1,510 million tonnes by 2010; 1,970 million
by 2020 and 2,205 million by 2030.
The route of the designed pipeline will go through territories of
seven constituents of the Russian Federation. They are the Irkutsk, Chita
and Amur regions, the Republic of Buryatia, the Jewish autonomous
district, the Khabarovsk and Primorye territories.
The length of the system via the route
Taishet-Kazachinskoe-Skovorodino-Perevoznaya is 4,130 kilometers. For
pipeline construction pipes of 1,220 mm in diameter will be accepted.
The route's profile is characterized as sophisticated geological and
hydro-geological and seismic conditions. Most of the pipeline as it is
anticipated will be laid underground. Some 435 km of marshlands, more than
a thousand of rocks and semi rocks, Aeolian lands, fissures, karst rocks
and mudflows, hillsides with significant slopes. The route will be
crossing some 50 large and small rivers tens of motorways and railways.
The design of underground pipeline anticipates three layers of
anti-corrosion coating factory made of special material; seam insulation
will be performed with heat-shrinkage insulation. Overland pipeline will
be protected by epoxy coating as well as other special materials.
Motorway and railway crossings in usual and permafrost areas is
planned to be underground and in permafrost areas thermo-insulation will
be applied on pipes.
River crossings will be performed traditionally with trench as well as
using trenchless method of pipe laying.
Pipeline maintenance will be performed by brigades belonging to linear
stations, located along the pipeline every 80 - 100 kilometers in mountain
areas and every 200-250 kilometers in flat country. Remote pumping
stations and linear valves with absence of roads will be equipped with
helipads.
Some 32 pumping stations were designed, including 13 with tank farms
2,670 thousand cubic meters of total capacity.
Industrial units include cargo terminal amongst which one able to
accept tankers of 300 thousand tonnes deadweight, peers of port fleet,
auxiliary facilities.
The designed system will have high level of reliability and minimal
rate of environmental influence. A set of technical solutions has been
developed to eliminate or minimize a possibility of adverse affect. At
that the most advanced technologies will be used, reflecting modern level
of technical achievements in the field of environmental protection and
nature management. These include:
- Combined solutions for sewage disposal for water bodies' protection;
- Underwater crossings performed using method of directional drilling
and micro tunneling. These advanced technologies allow not just avoid
adverse affect on riverbed during pipeline construction but almost
eliminate a possibility of oil spill in water in case of emergency;
- Highly efficient methods of waste disposal aimed at soil, grounds
and ground water sources protection from pollution;
- Advanced methods of damaged soil re-cultivation conducive to
protection and rehabilitation of fertile soils.
- The service will be established to monitor changes in pipeline and
adjacent areas (technical monitoring)
The system exploitation anticipates very strict compliance with
requirements of working norms and standard.