After the pipeline was commissioned, Mr Putin wrote the following in the distinguished visitors' book: "I congratulate you on the beginning of your work. Happy New Year. Good luck."

The East Siberia - Pacific Ocean Oil Pipeline System is called on to diversify Russian oil supplies and to open up the new and promising Asia-Pacific market for Russia.

Vladimir Putin's speech at the official ceremony:

Good afternoon,

This is a happy event and a landmark for the sector and the region. A major project, which would also have been a grandiose project for the former Soviet Union, has been completed in modern Russia.

The entire system is longer than the Baikal-Amur mainline. We had decided to launch the project on December 31, 2004 and have accomplished all our objectives in five years. An impressive 360 billion roubles was invested in the system. Another 60 billion roubles was spent on Kozmino port.

This is a serious event for Russia. This is a strategic project enabling us to enter entirely new, emerging and promising Asia-Pacific markets.

Although Russia now operates on those markets, its share is inadmissibly small. The commissioning of the pipeline system and Kozmino port provide us with entirely new opportunities.

But we do not merely plan to sell oil. This implies state-of-the-art technology and the rapid development of Russia's Far East and East Siberia. Over 3,000 jobs have been created. Iron-and-steel works which were also involved in the project placed orders with the mining industry.

I would like to draw your attention to the fact that you have managed to accomplish all this and to finish the work without a hitch during a global financial and economic crisis. People worked in extremely difficult conditions in the impassable taiga without any infrastructure and electricity. And now all this has been created by the talent and labour of engineers and workers. This is truly a landmark event.

I would like to congratulate all of you. This is an excellent New Year's present for Russia.

I wish you all the best.