MOSCOW, March 13: Russia has postponed until May 1 a decision on whether to route an eastern oil pipeline from its vast Siberian reserves to China or to the Pacific coast on the Sea of Japan, Energy Minister Igor Yusufov said on Thursday.

Experts will need until the start of May to decide which of the options will be the most effective economically for transporting oil from Western Siberia to the Asia-Pacific region, the minister said, as quoted by the Interfax news agency.

Three options are currently under consideration, Yusufov said: a pipeline from Angarsk, near Irkutsk in Western Siberia, to Nakhodka, on Russia’s Pacific coast, from Angarsk to Daqing in northeastern China, or a pipeline to Nakhodka with a branch line to China.

Japan and China have been lobbying the Russian government to support either of two competing oil pipelines linking the Angarsk refinery to Asian customers, while the idea of building pipelines to both China and Japan was floated last month as a possible solution to the battle between the two Asian countries.

Debate over the competing routes has come to the fore in recent months as global worries mount over the fate of world energy prices amid the Iraqi crisis.

Media reported last month that Russian officials were likely to support a project building two separate pipelines from Angarsk.

The first, shorter line would go to Daqing, a 2,400-kilometre project that would cost $2.9 billion to build.

The second, 3,800-kilometre line running through the frozen Chita district would cost $5.8 billion and link Siberian oil to customers in Japan, South Korea and perhaps even the United States.

The second option is backed by Transneft, the state agency which holds the monopoly on oil transportation.

Analysts believe that under a proposal to build separate pipelines, the China route would be constructed first, probably to be completed by 2005, and the Pacific route added later.—AFP