Russia-Japan Pipeline Construction Halted

The Russian Natural Resources Ministry said last week, that surveying work for an oil pipeline from East Siberian oil fields to the Pacific Ocean coast has been halted around Lake Baikal over environmental fears.

Deputy Natural Resources Minister Valentin Stepankov sent a letter to Greenpeace Russia to thank the environmental group for helping to monitor the surveying work.
Actually the project has been already criticized by environmental groups.

The pipeline will pump 1.6 billion barrels per day from the town of Taishet in Siberia?s Irkutsk region to the town of Skovorodino in the Amur region. From there the second stage of the pipeline will be built to the Pacific Ocean port of Perevoznaya Bay to transport oil to Japan and Southeast Asian countries.