The proposed pipeline to bring Siberian crude to the Pacific port of Nakhodka to supply Japan will cost $10 billion, Kyodo News said, citing Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov.
Russia is considering construction of the pipeline and had held talks with the Japanese at a vice ministerial meeting in Moscow earlier this week, the minister told Itar-Tass, the Japanese agency reported.
The proposed Nakhodka pipeline is competing with a separate route to Daqing in China, Kyodo said. The oil major Yukos is backing the Daqing pipeline, estimated to cost $2.8 billion.
Japan has already offered Russia $5 billion in loans to build the Nakhodka pipeline, which is backed by Transneft, Russia's oil pipeline monopoly, and Sumitomo Corp., Japan's fourth-largest trading company.
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Japanese Pipeline Cost»
A cool $10 billion...