Prime Minister Vladimir Putin took part in the opening ceremony of the Sever project, which includes the petrochemicals pipeline Kstovo-Yaroslavl-Kirishi-Primorsk and a light oils sea terminal. 

Vladimir Putin's speech at the opening ceremony of the Sever project in Primorsk:

First of all, I would like to congratulate all the people who worked on the creation of this system for three years on the successful completion of this task.

The work went on for three years in nine Russian region, providing jobs to 2,000 people.

As you know, we transport 34.5 million metric tons of petrochemicals via the Baltic and the Gulf of Finland. That is almost half of Russia's total petrochemicals exports. Launching phase 1 here in Primorsk means that we will be able to increase it by 8.4 million metric tons.

But it's not only boosting exports that matters. What is more important is that it encourages our oil companies and refineries to upgrade their production assets and to switch to processed petrochemicals from crude exports.

That would mean us keeping the additional value, new jobs being created, and so forth. But that is not all. Projects like that make it possible for us to diversify the delivery routes of our export goods to the customers. If the oil refineries are upgraded in time, including those in Kirishi, on the Volga and in Tatarstan, we will be able to expand the terminal delivery to 24 million metric tons. That means the export cargoes we currently transport through the Baltic countries will be redirected to Russian sea ports. I hope it will be done very soon. 
I'd like to mention that only extra-budgetary funds were used to build the Sever terminal. And I hope that oil companies will be interested in developing the pipeline and transportation infrastructures in the future. This is the choice that we made when defining the objectives for the industry's development. We will keep to this direction. 
I again congratulate everyone, the head of the company and, especially, the engineers and workers who worked hard for three years to ensure a timely completion and high quality of the facility.