Details Materializing for Siberian Pipelines through East Sea

The possibility of bringing Siberian gas into the country through the East Sea instead of the West Sea has become greater.

A Russian source in the energy field reported on August 4, "Gas pipelines will be built to head towards the East Sea via Far Eastern Nakhodka, and a new plan to supply gas to Korea is being discussed with the country."

The Russian state-run Gazprom and the Korea Gas Corporation are known to have recently discussed this matter in Moscow.

This source said, "The former business plan, which Korea, Russian and China signed last November after the feasibility study, has actually been dropped."

If a pipeline comes to the East Sea, the route will not go through China, and so China will be excluded from the business plan, leaving only Korea and Russia.

Originally, the three countries had planned for the gas developed in the Kovytka gas field near Irkutsk to link the pipelines through China, the West Sea, and Pyeongtaek, to supply China and Korea.

However, as the Russian government recently decided to consolidate all its pipelines and gas routes in Eastern Siberia to Far Eastern Nakhodka, a reconsideration of the plan was inevitable.

As China presented an excessively low price, views among the Russian government to exclude China arose, also causing a change in the plan.

Russia sees that a change in the gas pipeline route would also be more of an advantage to Korea. Since it will not pass through China, Korea can stock up on more gas.

Also, there will be a broader selection. Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) can be brought in by sea instead of constructing pipelines in the East Sea, and depending on the political situation, pipelines routing through North Korea can also be constructed.

A business delay due to the change in the gas route is unavoidable, but Russia projects supplying gas to Korea by as early as 2010.

Ki-Hyun Kim kimkihy@donga.com