Report: Kremlin Envoy Opposes New Pipeline

MOSCOW – The Kremlin’s top representative in Siberia voiced opposition to the route of a planned oil pipeline that would run less than a kilometer ( 1/2-mile) from the world’s largest freshwater body, the Vedomosti business daily reported Monday.

Anatoly Kvashnin wrote President
Vladimir Putin that “in the eventuality of a natural disaster … large volumes of oil may flow into the lake (Baikal) and destroy this ecosystem,” Vedomosti reported.

Kvashnin also questioned the economics of the pipeline, saying that it “follows a route that has few promising areas for oil exploration, and will demand the construction of more pipelines leading back to oil production sites,” something which he said both raised the volume of investment needed and the payback time for the project.

Russia’s Supreme Court this month rejected an environmentalists’ appeal against the route of the 4,100-kilometer (2,550-mile) pipeline, which is to run from eastern Siberia to Russia’s Pacific coast and allow increased oil exports to energy-hungry markets in China, Japan and South Korea.

AP