The company Transneft has changed the route of the second branch of the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean oil pipeline, Itar-Tass reports.
It will run north, and not south of the city of Khabarovsk as it was planned earlier, the company’s vice-president Mikhail Barkov told ITAR-TASS on Monday.
He said the change of the route would make it 120 kilometers longer and the project of its construction 20 billion roubles costlier.
However, this will not affect the construction schedule, he added.
Barkov explained diverting the pipeline was warranted by the fact that it was initially to run through a stretch of the Amur River, from which the water is pumped for the supply of Khabarovsk.