MOSCOW, May 29 (UPI) -- Russian pipeline company Transneft will infuse another $260 million into an oil line that will serve as another stake into the Asian market.
Officials with the state-owned Transneft said the extra money will be used to push Siberian oil through the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline. When operational, it will send 1.6 million barrels per day of oil to Russia's Far East, then to China and the rest of the region, RIA Novosti reports.
Andrei Dementyev, Russia's deputy minister of industry and energy, said Russia intends to use the ESPO pipeline to supply 6.5 percent of the Asian oil market.
Russia is the second-largest producer and exporter of oil, behind Saudi Arabia. It has traditionally focused on serving the European and Western markets. But the rise of economies in Asia, led by China and India, has forced Russia to consider developing its eastern reserves and export routes.
This also puts Asia in competition with Europe for Russia's oil.
The first part of the ESPO pipeline is expected to open in December 2008, linking Taishet in East Siberia to Skovorodino, in Russia's Far East. A second pipeline will link Skovorodino to Kozmino.
