Putin says pipeline to boost Far Eastern development.

GEORGIYEVKA (Khabarovsk region), July 31 (Itar-Tass) -- Prime Minister
Vladimir Putin, who attended the construction commencement ceremony of the
Sakhalin-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok gas pipeline on Friday, said the
large-scale project will boost regional economic recovery and also supply
natural gas to Asia and the Pacific Rim.

"Even in difficult conditions of the global economic crisis Russia is
capable of implementing most ambitious and large-scale projects," he said
referring to the 1800-km pipeline.
"The project is to open a new page in the development of East Siberia
and the Far East and breathe new energy into the recovery of the regions,
increase their attractiveness and competitiveness," the prime minister
said.
He noted the pipeline was only a part of the development program,
which also includes geological prospecting in Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk
regions and on Sakhalin Island, in Yuakutia and Kamchatka. "Dozens of
fields have to be developed and started up from zero," Putin said.
Domestic market will consume most gas from Siberia and the Far East.
"It will become the resource base for the creation of major energy and gas
processing complexes, modern high-tech facilities," the prime minister
said.
At the same time "gas transportation infrastructure development in the
east of the country will help diversify export routes and enhance
positions on dynamically developing markets of Asia and the Pacific Rim,"
Putin said.
The first stage of the pipeline is to be completed in the third
quarter of 2011.