The Russian industry and energy ministry wants to build the second leg of a new oil pipeline to Europe bypassing Belarus and Poland in order to reduce Russia’s dependence on transit countries. The ministry said that the proposed pipeline, which will have an annual capacity of 80 million tonne, will run from the Russian town of Unecha, near the Belarusian border, to the Primorsk terminal bordering Finland. It will be the second leg of the Baltic Pipeline System, which will pump Siberian oil from Russia to Germany across the Baltic seabed and on to the rest of Europe and the USA. The new pipeline will connect Unecha with the oil terminal in the Baltic port of Primorsk though Velikie Luki, allowing Russia to stop pumping oil to Europe via the Druzhba pipeline. It would also increase the capacity of the port at Primorsk to 150 million tons per year.
