India, China, Russia weigh oil pipeline plan

Mumbai: India, China and Russia are actively considering a proposal to set up an oil pipeline running from resource-rich Russia to energy-hungry China and India, sources familiar with the industry said.

"The project is very likely to succeed," Xia Yishan, a senior research fellow with the China Institute of International Studies, said at the third Sino-Russo-Kazakh Oil and Gas Forum in Shanghai.

Xia, an expert in the National Energy Leading Group of the Chinese government who is actively involved in big oil and gas projects in the country, said several options are under discussion about the contours of the pipeline.

The pipeline may run from Russia to Altay in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China, climb the Tianshan Mountain, and extend south to Kunlun Mountain till it reaches India.

However, Vladimir Saenko, head of the State Energy Policy Department of the Ministry of Industry and Energy of Russia, said it was still too early to discuss the contours of the pipeline.

While the talks will be complex and prolonged, he said, "It may be simpler to ship the oil by sea."

While "India is the most active party in the project," Xia said, "China, as the country through which the pipeline will pass, will also benefit" by getting a financial return as a transit country and possibly securing cheaper oil.