Aug. 30 – Russia officially opened its section of the 1,000 kilometer-long Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline on Sunday that will reportedly deliver 30 million tons of crude oil to China’s developing northeast region.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin attended the opening ceremony in the border city of Skovorodino in Russia’s Far Eastern Amur Oblast. From here, the pipeline extends about 64 kilometers to the Chinese border and, when completed, will continue on for another 930 kilometers to the Chinese city of Daqing – situated just to the northwest of Harbin, Heilongjiang Province.

“This project is important for our Chinese friends and for Russia. For China it means stable supplies and a better energy balance, and for us it means access to new and promising markets in the Asia-Pacific Region – in this case, the very promising and rapidly developing market of China,” Putin said during his speech at the opening ceremony in Skovorodino.

While Putin acknowledges that China still “needs to do a little more work” before the pipeline is fully operational, he is “absolutely certain” that Russian oil will flow to China this year. Russia is keen to expand energy ties in the Asia-Pacific region and to diversify away from its reliance on the European market.

“Even today, our European partners receive somewhere around 120 to 130 million tons of Russian oil,” Putin said. “We still supply only a small amount to the Asia-Pacific region. The commissioning of this section of ESPO will supply 30 million tons and the expanded ESPO will supply up to 50 million tons.”

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