Japan to Help Finance Construction of Angarsk - Nakhodka Oil Pipeline

Khabarovsk Region Governor Viktor Ishaev has today met with a delegation of Japanese industrialists headed by Yoshiro Kamata, the president of the Japan National Oil Corporation.

The Khabarovsk regional administration's press centre told Rosbalt that Japan is particularly interested in the possibility of exporting oil from Sakhalin through the De Kastri port and wants to participate in laying the Angarsk - Nakhodka major oil pipeline. According to preliminary figures, the oil pipeline will require USD 5 billion of investment. The total length of the pipeline, from Angarsk to the coast of the Sea of Japan, will be 3,884.8 kilometres. 245.8 kilometres will run through the Khabarovsk Region.

Construction of the pipeline in the region will take about three years and will create around 800 new jobs. When construction work is completed in 2010, the pipeline will transport 50 million tonnes of oil a year.

Despite the high cost of the project, Yoshiro Kamata said that the Japanese government places particular importance on it. Implementation of the project would assist the development of the Siberian and Far Eastern economies, open up new oil fields, and diversify Russia's oil exports. If a decision is taken to go ahead with the project, Japan is ready to consider providing sizeable loans for the pipeline's construction.

Governor Ishaev assured his Japanese guests that other regions in the Russian Far East are also interested in the project, and expressed his confidence that the Japanese visit would help Russian-Japanese relations to develop further.