The paving of a China-bound branch line of the Eastern Siberia-Pacific oil pipeline may start at the end of the first quarter next year, Nikolai Tokarev, president of Russia's state-run pipeline company Transneft said in a TV interview on Thursday.

The designing work of the pipeline has been completed after the coordination between Transneft and the China National Petroleum Corp, and the construction project has been presented to related department in Russia for appraisal, said Tokarev, adding that the result is expected soon.

According to last year's cost evaluation, the budget of the project was about US$600 million, he said.

The construction is expected to encounter a series of technical difficulties, including the paving of the pipeline going through the bottom of the Amur (Heilongjiang) River, but the current technologies can ensure the smooth running of the project, he said.

Transneft wishes to start work as soon as possible, as the pipeline is expected to run synchronously with the 960-km line part in China, which starts from Daqing, China.

The 4,000 km-long Eastern Siberia-Pacific oil pipeline plans to link the Siberian city of Taishet near Lake Baikal and Russia's Pacific region via Skovorodino, the midpoint of the entire route. The first phase of the project, the 2,690-km route goes from Taishet to Skovorodino is expected to have an annual transport capacity of 30 million tons of oil.

The China-bound branch line will run from the midpoint of Skovorodino to the Chinese border under the latest deal between China and Russia. Its document was signed by Transneft and the China National Petroleum Corp during a meeting between Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his visiting Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao on Tuesday.

Construction of the first phase of the pipeline was originally planned to start between October to December this year but was later postponed till the end of next year. But Putin in August ordered the speeding up of the construction.

(Xinhua News Agency October 31, 2008)