Construction under way on oil pipeline to bypass Chechnya

by The Associated Press

Construction is under way on a Russian oil pipeline to bypass the breakaway region of Chechnya, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported Dec. 29.

A 50-kilometer (31-mile) section of the pipeline and more than 10 percent of the entire works have been completed, ITAR-Tass said, citing an official of the Transneft oil transport company.

Part of a pipeline running between the Azerbaijani capital Baku, on the Caspian Sea, and the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, it will pump oil through the Russian republic of Dagestan, which borders on Chechnya.

Transneft’s plans to build a new stretch of the pipeline around Chechnya predate the current war.

Oil theft has been extremely widespread in the lawless region, where the economy was devastated by the 1994-6 independence war against Russia and siphoning off oil became the sole way for many people to make a living.

Transneft vice president Sergei Grigoryev said Dec. 28 that construction of the new section of pipeline would continue even if the military succeeds in re-establishing Russian control over Chechnya, ITAR-Tass reported.