State-owned Transneft on August 1 commenced pumping technological oil into the Baltic Pipeline System - 2 (BPS-2), Transneft said Monday.
Transneft will pump 376000 tons of the oil until the 505-th km of BPS-2 pipe, at Andreapol (Tver region).
Within 2 months Transneft plans to pump 730000 tons of technological oil, and conduct the pipe tests. Pumping of the oil in the direction of Polotsk may start between October and December, the timing will depend on progress in ongoing trials, the company said.
The project "Baltic Pipeline System 2," route Unecha - Ust-Luga is implemented in line with the Russian government’s order (November 26, 2008). The project includes the construction of the 1000 km pipeline of capacity of 38 million tons per year (the first phase - 30m tons), five pumping stations (PS), as well as reconstruction of the existing pumping stations - "Unecha" and "Andreapol." The pipeline network runs on the territory of Bryansk, Smolensk, Tver, Novgorod and Leningrad regions of Russia.
The first phase includes the construction of the 1000km pipeline Unecha - Ust-Luga terminal, the construction of oil deport "Ust-Luga" with tank farm of 8 tanks of capacity of 50000 cbm each, as well as the construction of two pump stations and reconstruction of pumping station # 1 "Unecha" # 5 "Andreapol." The Phase 1 BPS-2 launch is scheduled for December 2011.
Moscow-based Transneft is the state-owned Russian company responsible for the national oil pipelines. Transneft owns the largest oil pipeline system in the world, with a total network length of nearly 50,000 km. The company transports about 93% of the oil extracted in Russia.