Eastern Siberia - Pacific Ocean

Plans for the construction of the USSR pipeline system with access to the Pacific Ocean were born no later than the 1970s. In his book The Mystery of Soviet Oil, Marshall I. Goldman , The Enigma of Soviet Petroleum (Allen & Unwin: London, Boston, 1980), cites a map of the USSR’s oil pipelines published by the CIA in 1977 . On it, the Eastern oil pipeline is indicated by a dotted line as being designed. The idea of ​​building an Eastern oil pipeline has again been actively explored since the end of the 20th century. Initially, the proposal to create an eastern pipeline route for the export of Russian oil came from the leadership of the Yukos oil company - at that time, however, it was about building an export pipeline to China.

In December 1999, the head of Yukos Oil Company Mikhail Khodorkovsky held talks with the China National Oil and Gas Corporation (CNPC) regarding the construction of an oil pipeline from Russia to China.

On July 17, 2001, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and Chinese President Jiang Zemin signed an agreement on the basic principles for developing a feasibility study for the Russia-China oil pipeline ( Angarsk - Daqing ).

This was followed by a long struggle between China and Japan as the main potential consumers of Russian oil, each of which tried to lobby for the most advantageous route for itself.

On April 2, 2002 Transneft presented an alternative oil pipeline project from Angarsk to Nakhodka . He was supported by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi .

In May 2003, projects were consolidated under the common name “Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean” (ESPO): it was proposed to send the main thread from Angarsk to Nakhodka with a branch to Daqing. On July 27 , however, the environmental commission of the Ministry of Natural Resources gave a negative opinion on the project.

In February 2004 , Transneft changed the starting point of the pipeline from Angarsk to Tayshet , and the final - from Nakhodka to Kozmin Bay .

The development of the project and the construction of the pipeline are carried out on the basis of the order of the Government of the Russian Federation of December 31, 2004 No. 1737-r.

According to the project developed by the state-owned Transneft company, the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean oil pipeline with a capacity of 80 million tons of oil per year should go from Taishet ( Irkutsk region ) north of Lake Baikal via Skovorodino ( Amur Region ) to the Pacific Bay of Kozmin ( Primorsky Territory (previously terminal the point was planned in Perevoznaya Bay).

It is planned to build a branch for oil export to China (the construction of this section with a length of 67 km and a capacity of 15 million tons per year will be completed, as planned, in 2010). ^[4] .

The pipeline is supposed to be built in two stages - at the first, an oil pipeline from Taishet to Skovorodino will be constructed with the simultaneous construction of a terminal on the Pacific coast, where oil will initially be delivered from Skovorodino by rail. According to Transneft’s initial estimate, the construction was supposed to cost $ 11.5 billion, the first stage to Skovorodino - $ 6.6 billion. According to the initial construction schedule, the first section of the pipeline was supposed to be completed on November 1, 2008. In February 2008, the date of completion of the first section of the pipeline was postponed to December 2009.

The length of the first part of the ESPO is 2,694 thousand km. Trails are laid towards each other from Taishet and Skovorodino. The connection of pipelines should take place in the region of Lensk . From Skovorodino, oil will be delivered to China by pipeline and by rail to the Pacific coast.

In February 2007, in a memorandum before the placement of Eurobonds, Transneft sharply raised the expected costs of the pipeline construction project. The construction costs of the first stage (Taishet - Skovorodino) with a capacity of 30 million tons and a sea terminal in Kozmina Bay (Pacific Ocean) were estimated at $ 11 billion (295 billion rubles). The branch to China will be built at the expense of the Chinese oil company CNPC ^[5] , the construction of a branch with a length of 1030 km is planned to be completed in 2008 ^[6] .

For two years to provide electric power to the oil pipeline facilities, it was necessary to lay 800 kilometers of power transmission lines and build 14 network facilities. ^[7]

In addition to the pipeline, the possibility of laying a parallel Power of Siberia gas pipeline focused on the export of natural gas to the countries of the Asia-Pacific region was considered ^[8] .

Refining

Two large operating refineries are connected to the pipeline - the Khabarovsk oil refinery (in 2015) ^[9] and the Komsomol oil refinery (in 2018) ^[10] . There are also plans to build a refinery at the end point of the pipeline.

• In January 2006, the project developed by Transneft did not pass the state environmental review, as it envisaged laying an oil pipeline in a seismically dangerous zone at a distance of 700-800 m from the northern end of Lake Baikal. Rostekhnadzor also rejected the proposal to use Perevoznaya Bay as the end point of the pipeline: this bay cannot accept deep-sea vessels, and the Far Eastern Marine Reserve is located next to it. However, after President Putin’s visit to China in early 2006 and as a result of massive pressure on expert organizations, the project was soon approved (March 1, 2006). At the same time, the issue of the ESPO endpoint was decided to be re-examined during 2006.
• On March 22 and April 5, 2006, the State Duma, adopting the Water Code in the second and third reading, respectively, introduced (at the suggestion of deputies from the Irkutsk region) the provision that the water protection zone of Lake Baikal includes deltas of rivers flowing into the lake and runs along the tops of the ranges, the slopes of which are adjacent to the lake. In other words, a ban was imposed on any construction 20 km from the shoreline of Lake Baikal.
• On April 12, 2006, the State Duma unexpectedly returned to the discussion of the already adopted Water Code and adopted an important amendment that removes legislative restrictions on construction near Lake Baikal. Thereby, Transneft’s intentions to hold an oil pipeline in the immediate vicinity of the lake were supported.
• In March - April 2006, protest rallies were held in Irkutsk , Tomsk , Moscow, Yekaterinburg and other cities. In addition to environmentalists, the governor of the Irkutsk region, Alexander Tishanin, and the envoy to the Siberian Federal District, Anatoly Kvashnin, also defended the lake. Ecological organizations Greenpeace and WWF tried to prevent the laying of the oil pipeline in the immediate vicinity of Lake Baikal. Residents of the Khabarovsk Territory and local organizations filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court to annul the order on the construction of the ESPO, but were defeated.
• On April 26, 2006, during a meeting with Siberian governors in Tomsk, President Putin unexpectedly announced the need to revise the project in order to draw an oil pipeline no closer than 40 kilometers from the northern coast of Lake Baikal. According to experts, changing the route was supposed to significantly increase the cost of the project and the construction time of the pipe. But at the same time, the ESPO in the new version of the route approached the largest oil and gas fields in the north of the Irkutsk region and Yakutia (Talakansky, Verkhnechonsky, Chayandinsky, Srednebotuobinsky and others), making it possible to reduce the cost of the construction of supply pipelines and infrastructure. ^[eleven]
• On April 28, 2006 in Taishet, the first joints of the laid pipes of the oil pipeline were welded - the construction of the ESPO began.
• As of the beginning of October 2006, 350 km of 4670 km of the pipeline route were laid and welded; the average speed of work was 3 km per day ^[12] .
• On July 12, 2007, the seam of the thousandth kilometer ESPO was welded ^[13] . The president of Transneft confirmed the loading of the first stage of ESPO with a length of 2694 km and a capacity of 30 million tons per year: Transneft has confirmed applications for the transportation of 36 million tons ^[14] .
• At the beginning of February 2008, at a meeting on the development of the Far East and Transbaikalia, Transneft President Nikolai Tokarev announced the following: ^[15]

Completion and commissioning of the first phase of the ESPO is possible only in 2009, in the fourth quarter ... The main reasons for the lag behind the schedule are the extreme conditions for the construction of the system, the late start of work and a significant increase in the length of the route

• Already in mid-February 2008, Nikolai Tokarev said in an interview with the Vedomosti newspaper that the main reason for the construction delay was the unfair work of the general construction contractors selected by the previous Transneft management, after refusing the services of general contractors and financing contractors directly, the construction speed increased over 2 months from 1.5..2 to 5.5..6 km per day. ^{[16] [17]}
• In mid-March 2008, the Ministry of Industry and Energy of Russia approved a new deadline for launching the first stage of the pipeline - the fourth quarter of 2009 ^[18] .
• In early May 2008, it was reported that Transneft terminated relations with the general contractor Krasnodarstroytransgaz and decided to hold a new tender for the construction of the Aldan - Tynda oil pipeline section. ^[nineteen]
• On October 4, 2008, part of the oil pipeline from the Talakanskoye oil field to Tayshet with a length of 1,105 km was put into operation in reverse mode ^[20] .
• On October 15, 2008, the Verkhnechonskoye oil field in the Irkutsk region was connected to the pipeline. Deliveries from it will also so far be carried out in reverse. ^[21]
• On April 27, 2009, Transneft completed welding of the linear part of the first stage of ESPO. ^[22]
• On April 27, 2009, construction began on a branch from ESPO to China in Russia. During the ceremony of welding the first seam, an act was signed on the start of work. ^[23]
• in May 2009, construction of a branch in the Chinese section began in Heilongjiang Province. ^[24]
• On July 20, 2009, the government of the Russian Federation adopted a resolution on zeroing customs duties on oil exports from 13 fields in Eastern Siberia . This measure is designed to enhance the development of the region’s subsoil, which serves as a resource base for filling the ESPO pipeline. ^[25]
• On October 24, 2009 , at 2:00 Moscow time, the last, 2757 km of the linear part of the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline system (ESPO I) was filled with oil. ^[26]
• On December 28, 2009, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin launched the first phase of ESPO, launching the shipment of oil to a tanker bound for Hong Kong . Total costs for the construction of the first phase of the pipeline amounted to 378 billion rubles, and another 60 billion rubles. - for the construction of the port of Kozmino ^{[27] [28]}
• On September 27, 2010, the completion of the allotment from ESPO to China was announced. ^[29]
• In November 2010, the Government of the Russian Federation expressed gratitude to Transneft with the wording “for a great contribution to the development of cooperation in the field of energy between the Russian Federation and the PRC, as well as in connection with the completion of the construction of the Skovorodino-PRC border pipeline” ^[29] .
• In July 2012, Transneft began to fill with oil the second stage of the pipeline (ESPO-2).
• In December 2012, the ESPO-2 oil pipeline was commissioned ^[2]
• On December 15, 2014, three oil pumping stations (pump stations No. 11, 15 and 19) were put into operation, built as part of the ESPO-1 expansion project, which made it possible to increase the capacity of ESPO-1 to 58 million tons of oil per year. ^[thirty]

At the end of 2009, the Vedomosti newspaper wrote that in 2010 oil supplies via the new route would be unprofitable for Transneft: the network tariff for oil transportation through the ESPO was approved at 1598 rubles per 1 ton, and the cost of oil transportation, according to the president AK Transneft Nikolai Tokarev - $ 130 per 1 ton ^[31] . In the second half of 2010, the transportation tariff was increased to 1651-1815 rubles per 1 ton. ^[32]

In 2010, the port of Kozmino handled 15.3 million tons of crude oil ^[33] . Most of the tankers that transported oil delivered via the ESPO were of the Aframax type. According to experts of Lloyd, a full-fledged introduction of the pipeline will lead to the growth of the Aframax tanker market, which can accept all destination ports ^[34] .

According to the end of 2011, the volume of oil supplies under the ESPO is about 300 thousand barrels per day. ^[35]

In 2012, 15 million tons were delivered to the Skovorodino-Mohe route. ^[36]

In 2014, oil exports from Kozmino reached 25 million tons. ^[37]

January 20, 2010, 30 km from the city of Lensk due to a pipe break during a scheduled repair, a leak of 450 m³ of oil occurred that spilled onto the ground. ^[38] The area of ​​pollution was 20 thousand square meters. ^{[38] An} oil leak was discovered on January 20 while patrolling the pipeline, ^[39] after which an emergency mode was introduced on the territory of the Lensky district . ^[38]

196 people and 40 pieces of equipment took part in the liquidation of the accident; by the morning of January 21, the work was completed. ^[40]

By January 25, about 150 m³ of oil products had been collected, more than two thousand square meters of contaminated territory had been cleaned. ^[39]

For the first time, Transneft was asked by the deputy of the State Duma from United Russia Dmitry Savelyev ; on August 20, 2007 he sent a corresponding request. ^[41] September 17, 2007 Simon Vainshtok resigned as president of Transneft and headed the Olympstroy Group of Companies . In October 2007, Nikolay Tokarev was appointed the new president of Transneft. ^[42] In the same month, a new Transneft leadership set up an ESPO audit commission. ^{[43] [44]} In February 2008, Weinstock stated about her activities: “There was a specific task - to bring everyone to clean water. So if there is a desire to find, they will find it ” ^[44] .

On November 21, 2007, the results of the work of the special commission that carried out the verification of the construction of the ESPO were published. ^[42] According to this check, the readiness of the first stage of ESPO in the linear part was then 41.1% (with the planned indicator of 60%), and at oil pumping stations - 23.9% (with the planned indicator of 56%). ^[42]

Following the results of the consideration of the requests of the deputy Savelyev, on February 15, 2008 the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation began checking the expenditures for the construction of the ESPO ^{[41] [44]} .

On February 2, 2009, the Accounts Chamber announced the completion of the ESPO audit. ^{[44] [45]} The Accounts Chamber reported that 78.5 billion of the nearly 250 billion rubles spent on ESPO before the end of the first half of 2008 were distributed “without tendering”, which indicates that the regulatory documents “ Transneft contains a “broad interpretation of cases involving contractors without tenders”. ^{[44] [45] [46]}

On March 24, 2010, the head of the Accounts Chamber Sergei Stepashin, during his speech in the State Duma, said that as a result of an audit conducted by the Accounts Chamber on the construction of the ESPO against Transneft management on fraud (the amount of damage is 3.54 billion rubles), a criminal case was opened, which is in production. ^{[47] [48] [49] [50]}

On November 16, 2010, Alexei Navalny published documents containing, according to him, information about major thefts during the implementation of the ESPO project ^[51] . So, on page 64 it was written: "... unreasonable costs for construction and installation work will amount to approximately 47 billion rubles." Navalny said that the total amount of thefts for all the documents that he has is more than 120 billion rubles. ^[52] According to Navalny, these documents are the result of an internal audit of the construction of the ESPO by the Transneft Commission. ^[52] Navalny stated that the results of the work of the Transneft Commission were classified. ^{[53] [54] [55]} Following the statement by Navalny, a number of media publications followed. ^{[56] [57] [58] [59] [60] [61]} .

Transneft’s management refused to comment on these documents in any way, saying that Navalny’s blog is not a mass media outlet ^[62] .

On November 16, 2010, opposition political strategist Marina Litvinovich stated that Navalny was “paid” or “used blindly,” and that “Vainshtok’s order for Mochilovo has been around for a long time.” ^[63]

On November 18, 2010, the head of the Accounts Chamber Sergey Stepashin said that a previous audit of the Accounts Chamber did not reveal $ 4 billion theft ^{[46] [64]} . Navalny, in turn, accused Stepashin of harboring crimes, saying that none of the thefts that deny the fact indicate falsification of the documents provided ^[65] .

On November 19, 2010, the Auditor of the Accounting Chamber, Mikhail Beskhmelnitsyn, stated that the scandal could be raised by order of ^[66] participants in the redistribution of the market in Southeast Asia. He noted that the amount of damage announced in March 2010 by Stepashin in the report on the work of the Accounting Chamber for the year amounted to 3.5 billion rubles. ^[49] Navalny claimed that no criminal cases had been opened on this fact. ^[67] This statement by Navalny contradicts Stepashin's statement of March 24, 2010 that the criminal case was opened. ^[49]

On December 29, 2010, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced that the prosecutor’s office would be investigating the case. ^[68]

On January 13, 2011, Transneft’s head Nikolai Tokarev, in an interview with Russia 24, said that Navalny’s publications were part of the campaign against the ESPO. The shortcomings of the ESPO project were identified at the initiative of Transneft itself, Tokarev emphasized, adding that all information was sent to the relevant departments. According to him, Navalny calculated the amount of damage by extrapolation, that is, in fact, came up with this figure, which in some media appears as reliable. ^[69]

On January 26, 2011, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, in an interview with the Vedomosti newspaper, voiced his position: “There was a lot of noise regarding ESPO, but I have not seen any evidence so far. But since the topic has attracted public attention, a full investigation of all circumstances should be conducted. And through law enforcement, and through the Accounts Chamber. Let them do it. ” ^[70]

On September 28, 2011, Vladimir Putin said that the results of the Audit Chamber’s audits of Transneft’s activities in the construction of the ESPO did not reveal a criminal component in this case ^[71] .

• Oil pipeline history
• ESPO: expert portal
• Work starts on Russian pipeline
• ESPO map
• Pipeline Map