Russia Approves Pipeline Extension To Baltic

An oil pump station on the Druzhba pipeline in Belarus (file photo) (Bymedia.net) May 21, 2007 -- Russia's government has approved a plan to build a pipeline extension that would reroute oil exports away from Belarus.

Instead, the new pipeline would route oil to Russia's own Baltic Sea port of Primorsk.

Russia's pipeline monopoly Transneft proposed the pipeline extension to Primorsk after a pricing dispute with Belarus earlier this year disrupted oil exports to Europe.

Transneft says the new link, which could eventually pump 1 million barrels per day, could be completed next year.

(Reuters, AFP)