Russian Gas To Reach China, South Korea In 2008-2010

As the Irkutsk region was presented at the European business club in Moscow, Derek Cochrane, the gas-main project chief from British Petroleum, said Kovykta gas would run along a gas-main to China and South Korea in 2008-2010. Deliveries will amount to 20-30 million cubic metres a year while the project's rated cost is $15-20 billion. The gas-main's first international feasibility plan is likely to be accomplished by the end of the first quarter of 2002. Main participants in the Kovykta project are Interros, the Tyumen oil company and British Petroleum. The success of the project will depend on production-sharing agreements with foreign partners and coordinated efforts of the governments of Russia, China, South Korea and, possibly, Mongolia, said Derek Cochrane.