The Eastern Siberia – Pacific Ocean (ESPO) oil pipeline is a grand pipeline system. It connects the West Siberian and East Siberian oil fields with the ports of Primorye on the Pacific coast. It provides the Russian Federation with access to the oil product markets of the Asia-Pacific region.
Route geography
The ESPO originates in the Irkutsk region, passes the Republic of Sakha-Yakutia, the Amur, Jewish Autonomous Regions and the Khabarovsk Territory. The end point of the route is Nakhodka Bay in the Primorsky Territory.
The oil pipeline was built by the state-owned company Transneft, and is managed by it.
History
The pipeline begins its history from the 70s of the twentieth century. Then the USSR had plans to build a pipeline system for the removal of oil from the central regions of the country on the Pacific coast. Preliminary exploration work was carried out. However, these plans were not destined to come true.
But at the end of the twentieth century, this idea began to gradually come true. The initiator of the construction of the pipeline was the management of Yukos. However, China was identified as its endpoint.
The first agreement of intent, the proposed transportation route and the features of its operation was signed in the summer of 2001 by the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation and the Chairman of the PRC. After that, for some time, representatives of the parties made attempts to implement the project in relation to the interests of a single country, which did not allow to move the process from a “dead point”.
In the spring of 2002, Transneft Corporation developed a project without the participation of the Chinese side. The route was supposed to run from Angarsk to Nakhodka. This plan was actively supported by the government of Japan.
A year later, both projects were merged into one - the Eastern Siberia - Pacific Ocean oil pipeline. According to the new plan, the main line of pipelines went from Angarsk to Nakhodka Bay. At the same time, a branch from him to the Chinese city of Daqing was provided.
This summer, after consideration by the environmental commission of the Ministry of Nature of the Russian Federation, the project was rejected, as it was reported to go through nature conservation sites and reserves. As a result of this, Transneft was forced to change the starting point from the city of Angarsk to the city of Taishet, and the final point was determined by Kozmin Bay.
Construction
The construction of this largest oil pipeline system began in April 2006. The first phase of the project, called ESPO – 1, was put into operation in December 2009. It was a pipeline from the city of Taishet to the Skovorodino station (oil pumping station).
The length of the ESPO-1 was 2,694 kilometers with an oil pumping capacity of 30 million tons per year.
In April 2009, according to previous agreements, the construction of a branch from the pipeline to China began. It was put into operation at the end of September 2010.
Phase 2 of the East Siberia – Pacific Ocean pipeline (ESPO – 2) was put into operation at the end of 2012. The length of this section, which connected the Skovorodino oil pumping station (Amur Region) with the Kozmino oil port terminal near the city of Nakhodka, is 2046 km.
Characteristics of the piping system
The total length of the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean oil pipeline is 4,740 km. Oil, which is supplied by this pipeline system to world markets, has become known as ESHPO. By the beginning of 2015, the capacity of the first section, ESPO-1, was increased to 58 million tons on an annualized basis. The pumping capacity of the branch to the Chinese Daqing, which originates in Skovorodino, is 20 million tons of oil per year.
The commissioning of the pipeline allowed to significantly reduce the costs of laying and powering another large-scale project in Russia - the Power of Siberia gas pipeline.
It is assumed that until 2020, the capacity of ESPO-1 will increase to 80 million tons per year.
The oil pipeline system made it possible to connect two objects of the Far Eastern Russian region to it: in 2015 - the Khabarovsk oil refinery; in 2018 - Komsomolsky.
Currently, design documentation is being developed for the construction of an oil refinery at the end point of the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline.
Difficulties in laying the track
In the process of laying the ESPO, builders were forced to solve complex technical issues. This is due to the lack of local infrastructure. All-terrain vehicles, aviation (helicopters), which exercised control over the general situation, were involved in the work.
Construction was seriously hampered by difficult environmental conditions, such as seismic activity and low temperatures. The terrain along the entire route of the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean oil pipeline also created serious obstacles. Water barriers, impenetrable taiga, and marshlands made it difficult to transport the necessary equipment and maintain the communications being built.
But despite all the problems, the project created the necessary infrastructure: comfortable villages, roads along the highway, power line systems, sewage treatment plants, etc. All communications were provided with security and communication systems.
Protests
Before construction began, at the beginning of 2006, the East Siberia – Pacific Ocean project, which was developed by the state-owned Transneft company, was rejected. This was due to the fact that, according to the state environmental expert review, its route passed in a complex seismological zone near the northern shores of Lake Baikal.
Subsequent actions by Transneft to lobby its plans led to concessions from the State Duma of the Russian Federation, and it lifted restrictions on construction near the Baikal shores.
The processes around the East Siberia oil pipeline received a great public response. Protests took place throughout the proposed route from Baikal to Amur. Especially active environmental activists were against the laying of a pipeline near the lake. They argued that the planned protection measures could not prevent serious and catastrophic consequences if an oil spill or other accident occurred in the East Siberia – Pacific Ocean oil pipeline.
The role of the President of the Russian Federation
Gradually, the demands of the public, which opposed the construction of the pipeline, began to acquire political shades. Some activists began to put forward slogans on the resignation of the government and the President of Russia.
In the summer of 2006, Russian President V. Putin sided with environmentalists and demanded that the pipeline system be laid no closer than 40 km from the northern coast of Lake Baikal.
As a result of such objections from the head of state, the project for the Eastern Siberia – Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline route was revised, and work began much north of Lake Baikal.
Checks
Transneft Corporation’s pipeline construction processes have been subject to multiple audits. The first of them was initiated by the State Duma in August 2007. In their request, the initiators pointed to the fact that the deadlines significantly lag behind the planned indicators. This led to the beginning of inspections by the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation (since February 2008) of the development of public funds allocated for the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline.
A year later, it was announced that the verification was completed. Based on its results, the fact of distribution of over 75 billion rubles without a tender was established.
In March 2010, S. Stepashin, the head of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, at a speech in the State Duma of the Russian Federation said that his structure revealed fraud by the management of Transneft. Damage to the state in the amount of 3.5 billion rubles. On the initiative of the Accounts Chamber, a criminal case has been launched, which is being processed by the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation.
However, in September 2011, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced that there were no complaints against Transneft regarding the construction of an ESPO. Criminal proceedings have not been established.