gas pipeline that will help bring gas from the far east of the country
to China.
"We are today starting the biggest construction project in the world,"
President Vladimir Putin said at the ceremonial joining of the first
sections of the 3,968-kilometre (2,466-mile) Siberian Strength
pipeline outside the eastern Siberian city of Yakutsk.
"But it is not about records, it is the fact that it is an extremely
important project for the Russian Federation and for the People's
Republic of China," he said, according to comments broadcast on
national TV.
China's Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli, who was also in attendance at the
ceremony, said he hoped the pipeline would be completed within four
years.
"China already plans in the first half of next year to start building
the Chinese section of the pipeline and we should make an effort to
complete construction and begin exploitation of the pipeline in 2018,"
he said.
In May the two countries signed a 30-year deal which will eventually
see Russia supplying China with 38 billion cubic metres of gas per
year, an agreement worth some $400 billion.
The pipeline, which will have a total capacity of 61 billion cubic
metres per year, will also link the gas fields in Yakustsk and
Irkustsk to cities across the Russian far east.
Putin said earlier that the project would allow for increased
hydrocarbon exports and was "also a major step forward in the
gasification of our own country."
Russia is the top gas exporter in the world, but to date most exports
have gone to Europe.
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