BEIJING (Dow Jones)--China National Petroleum Corp. has sent a delegation to Russia to discuss the possibility of participating in the construction of an oil pipeline from East Siberia to the Pacific Coast, according to a posting on the Web site of the Ministry of Commerce Thursday.
China's participation may help the pipeline's operator, OAO Transneft (TRNFP.RS), speed up construction of the 4,300-kilometer section from Taishet in East Siberia to Skovorodino near the Chinese border.
Transneft is under pressure to postpone the opening of the Taishet-Skovorodino section from the end of 2008 because of insufficient qualified workers and difficult terrain in the region.
CNPC's director of foreign affairs, Zhang Xin, led a delegation to the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic, one of Russia's remote Far Eastern regions, to discuss the pipeline construction problems with the local government, said the posting, citing local Russian media.
An official with the CNPC's foreign affairs department confirmed Zhang Xin is now in business trip abroad, but declined to disclose details.
Construction of the pipeline began in April 2006. The pipeline is designed to have a capacity of 600,000 barrels a day in the first phase. It is projected to ultimately deliver 1.6 million barrels of crude oil a day to eastern Asian destinations including Japan, China and South Korea.
Russia and China are negotiating on a branch line that would carry crude directly to the Chinese city of Daqing, but so far the negotiation has not been concluded.