Russia will finish an oil pipeline connecting Siberian oil fields to energy-hungry China in several weeks, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Monday.
"As I have just been told by the management of Transneft, within just a few weeks the phase of reaching the Chinese border will be completed, and we will move on further to the Pacific Ocean," he said a speech to Russian lawmakers.
Putin did not specify when the branch would actually begin pumping Russian oil to China.
Transneft is the Russian state-owned oil pipeline monopoly which has been building the East Siberian-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline to supply Asian markets.
The 4,700-kilometre (2,900-mile) pipeline is extend to Russia's Pacific coastline but Moscow has agreed to build a relatively short 67-kilometre (42-mile) spur to supply oil to northern China.
Putin and his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao agreed to build the spur last October in a milestone deal for energy cooperation between Beijing and its former Cold War rival Moscow.
