MOSCOW, November 10 (RIA Novosti) - The Industry and Energy Ministry has submitted the schedule for the construction of the East Siberia-Pacific pipeline to the government Thursday.
"The document was drafted taking into account the commissioning of the first section of the East Siberia-Pacific pipeline in 2008," senior ministry official Andrei Dementyev said.
State-owned oil company Transneft operates the 4,200-km pipeline, which has a capacity of up to 80 million metric tons of crude per year.
The first stage of the project, worth $11.5 billion, includes the pipeline construction on the Taishet - Skovorodino section, the first leg of which is in the Irkutsk Region, with the concluding leg in the Amur Region, and the building of an oil terminal in the Perevoznaya Bay in the Maritime Territory.
The pipeline runs to the Pacific Coast through Lake Baikal, raising environmentalists' concerns over the possible negative impact on the UNESCO world heritage site and the source of 20% of the earth's fresh water.
The proposed end point at Perevoznaya Bay also proved controversial, with wildlife groups arguing that the pipeline would damage the bay's unique ecosystem.
