The Pur Pe-Samotlor oil pipeline will be about 430 km long. It will have a capacity of 25 million tons annually with a possible expansion of up to 50 million tons. The planned completion date is in 2012. The pipeline will pass through the Yamal-Nenets and Khanty-Mansi autonomous areas.
Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said during the welding ceremony that the pipeline extension was an essential and logical continuation of the mainline and will make it possible to transport oil from the promising deposits of Eastern Siberia and the Pacific region, in which almost all big Russian oil companies operate. "The world market makes it necessary to fundamentally revise energy supply routes, diversifying them to meet the requirements of our traditional customers," he said.
According to Mr Sechin, the government proceeds from the premise that the Pur Pe-Samotlor and Zapolyarnoye-Pur Pe pipelines will eventually form a single system. "We will reach Zapolyarnoye eventually. The oil companies are talking about the need for comprehensive support for the development of the Yamal deposits, and they will receive such support by all means," Mr Sechin said, emphasizing the need to provide funding for the Zapolyarnoye-Pur Pe project and settle a number of technical issues.