Russia''s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin inaugurated the final leg of a pipeline to the Baltic Sea on Friday, Russian news agencies said, part of a new distribution system designed to bypass Belarus and Ukraine. In an official ceremony, Putin pushed a button, releasing oil from a new terminal into tankers docked at the Ust-Luga port on the Baltic Sea.
The ship was to leave Russia later for Rotterdam, while another tanker was to leave Monday, oil transport company Transneft said in a statement. The pipeline, ordered by Putin in 2008, was to have cost between 120 and 130 billion rubles (3.4-3.7 billion euros, $4.5-4.9 billion).
Linking the town of Unecha near the Ukrainian border with the Baltic Sea, the pipeline is 1,000 kilometers long and capable of moving 30 million tonnes of oil a year, Transneft said. Diplomatic spats with Ukraine and Belarus have pushed Russia to regularly cut off crucial gas and oil deliveries to Europe.