Prime Minister Vladimir Putin invited Kazakhstan to take part in the construction of the BPS-2 (Baltic Pipeline System), Itar-Tass reports.
Putin said Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev had expressed interest in this project.
“The participation of foreign companies is possible,” Putin said, adding he had invited Kazakhstan to join in the project.
In his words, Kazakhstan is studying the offer and “will decide whether or not it will participate”.
The Baltic Pipeline System is a Russian oil transport system operated by oil pipeline company Transneft. The BPS transports oil from the Timan-Pechora region, West Siberia and the Urals-Volga region to Primorsk oil terminal at the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland. Main elements of the Baltic Pipeline System are the Yaroslavl-Kirishi pipeline, the Kirishi pumping station, the Kirishi-Primorsk pipeline, and the oil terminal in Primorsk.
The project started in 1997 and the construction was completed in December 2001. In April 2006, the Baltic Pipeline System reached to its full design capacity of 1.3 million barrel of oil a day.
During planning and construction stages, the project was criticised by environmentalists, mainly because of Baltic Sea status as a particularly sensitive sea area and Primorsk port’s proximity to the Beryozovye Islands nature reserve, a major bird sanctuary protected by the Ramsar Convention.
The Baltic Pipeline System-2 is a planned second trunk line of the system. The pipeline will run from the Unecha junction of the Druzhba pipeline near the Russia-Belarus border almost 1,000 kilometers through Bryansk, Pskov, and Leningrad oblasts to the Primorsk terminal. The throughput capacity of BPS-2 will be 50 to 75 million tons annually. According to Transneft’s vice-president Sergei Grigoriyev, the pipeline can be completed within 18 months and the construction cost is estimated at 2 billion U.S. dollars to 2.5 billion U.S. dollars. The project was proposed after the oil dispute between Russia and Belarus at the beginning of January 2007, and it was approved by the Russian government on 21 May 2007.
Transneft plans to build the pipeline to Ust Luga and further to Primorsk.