Russian oil pipeline plans unveiled

A private Chinese company plans to build the country’s first oil pipeline to Russia, state media said today, underscoring growing Chinese interest in tapping Siberian petroleum resources.

The planned 20-mile project would link railway lines between Heihe in northeast China’s Heilongjiang province and the eastern Siberian city of Blagoveshchensk, across the Amur River, the officials China Daily newspaper said.

The new pipeline project is the latest sign of Chinese interest in tapping prospective oil and gas fields in eastern Siberia, as it attempts to quench its growing appetite for hydrocarbon fuels to power fast-paced economic growth.

The Chinese and Russian governments already have discussed the feasibility of constructing a million-barrel-per-day oil pipeline from Anagarsk in Russia to join the existing Chinese pipeline network at the north-eastern city of Daqing. An alternative million-barrel-per-day pipeline would terminate in the Siberian port city of Nadhoka.