The throughput capacity of the fist stage of the East Siberia-Pacific trunk oil pipeline (VSTO) is to be boosted from 30 to 45 million tonnes annually by 2013, Itar-Tass learnt on Tuesday at the management of the Vostoknefteprovod Company, a subsidiary of the Transneft Corporation.
The project for boosting the VSTO presupposes the start of building new five oil pumping stations (from the latter half of 2010) and an increase in the capacity of the two stations, now under construction.
Additional pumping stations will be built at the Yakutia section of the pipeline. This move is prompted by geological conditions, since over 500 kilometres of the pipeline run along highland and rugged terrain. Hydraulic losses while pumping oil are especially high at such sections.
The laying of the first stage of trunk pipeline, 2,694 kilometres long, has been completed; out of the total 2,094 kilometres are already with oil. Two out of seven stations have been commissioned. The date for putting into operation the rest and the entire first stage of the pipeline is fixed on December 25.
At the same time, work is well in progress to build a 68-kilometre pipeline from Skovorodino to the Chinese border; it will export annually 15 million tonnes of crude to the neighbouring country. The other 15 millions are planned to be shipped by rail tank-cars along the Trans-Siberian Railway to a Kozmino oil terminal, now going up on the Pacific coast.