The government may decide against linking its new Asian pipeline with the Chinese oil network and deliver crude across the border in rail trucks instead, the RF Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref said Wednesday, RZD-Partner reports.
"Everything depends on calculations. If railway deliveries are more profitable than the pipeline, then it is possible," said Gref, visiting Beijing with Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov. "So far, only the pipeline is under discussion."
Gref's comments followed a report in Vedomosti that quoted a source as saying Russia might want the rail option so as not to become too dependent on a fixed-pipeline link with China. Sending the oil by rail would be a setback for pipeline monopoly Transneft, as it would lose control of the final delivery point to state-owned Russian Railways, run by Vladimir Yakunin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, reports The Moscow Times.
"Everything depends on calculations. If railway deliveries are more profitable than the pipeline, then it is possible," said Gref, visiting Beijing with Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov. "So far, only the pipeline is under discussion."
Gref's comments followed a report in Vedomosti that quoted a source as saying Russia might want the rail option so as not to become too dependent on a fixed-pipeline link with China. Sending the oil by rail would be a setback for pipeline monopoly Transneft, as it would lose control of the final delivery point to state-owned Russian Railways, run by Vladimir Yakunin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, reports The Moscow Times.