Russia to Expand Asian Oil Link after 2015

Russia is on track to open the first 600,000 barrels per day phase of its Asian pipeline next year, but it is unlikely to expand to the full 1.6 million barrels per day capacity before 2015-2017, an official said on Thursday.

Deputy Energy Minister Andrei Dementyev told a government meeting that Russia needs to discover more oil in East Siberia to justify the expansion of the pipeline, but once done, it would secure an important share of the Asian-Pacific market.
“The Russian share of this market could exceed six percent,” he said. Russian oil export routes are limited to Europe, although sporadic cargoes are sent to the United States and Asia, when prices fall in Europe and rise in other places.

Russia hopes the Asian pipeline will make its exports more flexible, but pipeline monopoly Transneft, which is building the $11 billion link, said on Thursday the pricing impact was unlikely to be big.

Moscow News