The government did not support the pipeline project to the Far East

The government did not support the idea of building a giant oil pipeline from Omsk to the Far East. It was supposed to solve the region's fuel supply problem, unload the railway tracks for coal transportation and allow for increased supplies to the Asia-Pacific countries.

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As noted in a letter from Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev addressed to Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Energy Nikolai Shulginov (available to Izvestia), according to PJSC Transneft, the implementation of this project will require the construction of more than 7 thousand km of pipeline, as well as a terminal for transshipment of petroleum products to sea transport. The capital cost of the project will amount to at least 1 trillion rubles.

At the same time, over the past five years, there has been an underutilization of the refining capacities of the eastern group of refineries (Achinsky, Angarsky, Khabarovsk, Komsomolsky), given the possibility of increasing oil supplies by pipeline.

The Ministry of Energy believes that "an increase in the supply of petroleum products to the market of the eastern regions of the Russian Federation can be achieved by increasing the volume of oil refining at these refineries."

"Currently, Russian oil companies supply petroleum products to the Asia-Pacific region in small volumes, and therefore the production volumes of the Omsk Refinery will not be sufficient to form an export resource base for the construction of an oil product pipeline, which will require an increase in the length of this route in the western direction. Considering the above, the project of building a main oil product pipeline in the direction of the Pacific Ocean is currently not being considered for implementation," Sergey Tsivilev's letter says, despite the fact that the capacity of the pipeline itself is not disclosed.

According to Yuri Stankevich, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Energy, the lack of management decisions on the oil product pipeline project from the European part or the center of Russia to the Far East is explained by the low investment opportunities of state-owned companies and limited resources of the budget system in modern conditions.

Read more in the exclusive Izvestia article:

Fuel filter: Cabinet of Ministers did not support the pipeline project to the Far East