Ivan Menshikov, a deputy head of the TNK-BP corporate financing department, said the bid for the construction of the Kovykta-Sayansk-Irkutsk pipeline will be formulated in the near future, but he did not name the sum the company plans to receive from the investment fund.
The 645-kilometer (400-mile) pipeline is being constructed by the East Siberian Gas Company, owned by TNK-BP and the administration of the Irkutsk Region.
The company was established in 2004 as part of the Irkutsk Region gasification project on the basis of the Kovykta natural gas deposit. The construction is expected to take two years.
Investments in the project will reach $2 billion, including more than $1 billion from the East Siberian Gas Company.
Natural gas supplies to the densely populated and industrially developed south of the Irkutsk Region are expected to reach 2.5 billion cubic meters by 2010.
With 1.9 trillion cubic meters of proven reserves, the 62.4% TNK-BP-owned Kovykta deposit is crucial to the Russian government, which is pursuing ambitious plans to build a natural gas pipeline network to meet Asian nations' energy needs, in particular China, and to diversify its export destinations.
