ST. PETERSBURG, May 23. /ITAR-TASS/. The construction of the first line of the Sila Sibiri gas pipeline and the development of the East Siberian Chayanda gas field will begin in 2015, Russia’s gas giant Gazprom said in a release on Friday.

Gas production at the Chayanda field is planned to be launched in late 2018, by which time the Sila Sibiri pipeline section from Chayanda to Blagoveshchensk in Russia’s Far East will be commissioned. So, according to Gazprom, direct gas supplies under the contract with China will be started in 2019.

In line with a comprehensive plan on the implementation of investment projects linked with gas supplies to China from gas fields in Yakutia, pilot oil production at the Chayanda field will start in 2014 and oil pumping to the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline - in late 2017.