NOVOSIBIRSK, June 04. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia and China can soon sign a contract on construction of the western route of the gas pipeline that will run through the territory of the Siberian Federal District, Russia's Head of Presidential Administration Sergei Ivanov said.
“Maybe, the contract is not so capital intensive. But there are no doubts these will be dozens of billions of dollars,” Ivanov said on Wednesday.
The eastern route, Power of Siberia, will partially run through the Irkutsk Region, he said. “We won’t forget that the development of deposits and the construction of the pipeline are estimated to cost $55 billion. New jobs will be created. This will have a cumulative effect,” Ivanov said.
The Power of Siberia will become a unified gas transmission system for the Irkutsk and Yakutia gas production centres and convey gas from these centres to Vladivostok via Khabarovsk.
The Yakutia - Khabarovsk - Vladivostok gas pipeline will be constructed on the first stage. On the second stage, the Irkutsk center will be connected to the Yakutia centre by the gas pipeline.
The GTS route will run in parallel with the Eastern Siberia - Pacific Ocean operational oil pipeline, thus enabling to streamline the infrastructure and power supply costs. The GTS route will pass, inter alia, through swampy, mountainous and seismically hazardous areas.