"There can be no doubt that the pipe will function at its total working capacity. Eastern Siberia can certainly secure the filling of the eastern oil pipeline," Vainshtok told the Federation Council (upper chamber of Russian parliament) on Tuesday.
Laying the pipeline will entail the development of the Eastern Siberian oil and gas province, he stressed.
Vainshtok recalled that the pipeline would let the Russian oil companies enter markets in the Asian-Pacific Region.
"The APR countries account for 28% of the oil consumption in the world. The biggest consumers are China, Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and India. We understand very well the desire of Russian oilmen to enter the promising markets," Vainshtok said.
He stressed that the main goal of Transneft is to give Russian oil companies the right of choosing and changing, if required, routes of oil supply.
Vainshtok also said that his company would not face problems with attracting sums for building the project.
As regards another big project - the Northern oil pipeline with outlet to the Barents coast - Vainshtok said that this route would give the Russian oil companies access to the North American markets. The cabinet of ministers, Economic Development and Trade Ministry, Industrial and Energy Ministry are in favor of this project, he said. "We continue work on its feasibility study," Vainshtok said.
As to the enlargement of the Baltic Pipeline System (BTS), the Transneft CEO noted that its throughput capacity would be increased to 60 million tons in the first half of 2006. "We plan to finalize the project of developing (BTS-60) the Baltic system in the first half of 2006," he said.
