02-10-02 Second-largest Russian oil producer Yukos has submitted the first part of a feasibility study on building an oil pipeline to China to the State Construction Committee’s Chief Examination Directorate, a Yukos official. The first part of the study is aimed at determining the feasibility of financing the project -- tentatively estimated at $ 1.7 bn.
The official said Yukos, the operator of the 2,400 km pipeline project, also submitted the first part of documents examining the potential ecological impact of the project.

According to the feasibility study, the pipeline will bypass Mongolia -- as requested by China and Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft -- to ship oil from the town of Angarsk in east Siberia’s Irkutsk Region to the Chinese city of Daqing.
The pipeline is expected to pump 30 mm tpy of crude to China for 25 years, starting in 2005.

Yukos Vice President Alexander Temerko said that Russia expects to annually export $ 6 bn worth of oil to China after 2005.
Russian PrimeMinister Mikhail Kasyanov and the Premier of China's State Council, Zhu Rongji, signed a communique in August calling for the acceleration the project's implementation.