MOSCOW, May 19. /TASS/. Russian gas giant Gazprom plans to build about 50 km of the Power of Siberia pipeline in 2015, the company’s deputy chairman of Gazprom’s management committee Vitaly Markelov told reporters on Tuesday.

"Gazprom has already welded 15 km of line pipe of the Power of Siberia gas pipeline ," he said.

He said that the Stroitransgaz company had won a bid to build 208 km of the pipeline stretch to the town of Lensk in Russia’s republic of Yakutia.

China’s CNPC is to start building the Chinese stretch of the Power of Siberia pipeline in June, Markelov said.

The Power of Siberia is a gas transportation system to deliver gas the Yakutsk and Irkutsk gas production centers in Siberia to Russia’s Far East and China. The pipeline’s capacity will be 61 billion cubic meters per year. The pipe’s total length is 3, 968 km. The estimated construction cost is $21.3 bln.

The pipeline route will run along the existing route of the Eastern Siberia - Pacific Ocean oil pipeline, though swampy, mountainous and seismically active areas.

On the first stage the Yakutia-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok pipe will be built. On the second stage the Irkutsk gas production center /on the base of the Kovykta gas condensate field/ will be connected with the Yakutsk gas production center /on the base of the Chayandinskoye oil and gas condensate field/. The first part of the pipeline will be put into operation in 2017.

The Chayandinskoye oil and gas condensate field is located in the Lensky region of the republic of Yakutia. Discovered in 1989, it is one of the largest and yet to be developed fields in Russia. In terms of reserves is classified as a unique one: about 1.45 trillion cubic meters of gas and 93 million tons of liquid hydrocarbons. It is planned that up to 25 billion cubic meters of gas and at least 1.5 million tons of oil will be produced at this field.

The Kovykta gas condensate field was discovered in 1987. It is located in the north of the Irkutsk region. The field’s natural gas reserves are estimated at 1.9 trillion cubic meters. The estimated helium reserves amount to 2.3 billion cubic meters, the estimated reserves of liquid gas condensate are 115 million tonnes.