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| -Signs, Portents, and the Weather- |
| Russia Plans World's Longest Tunnel, a Link to Alaska (Update3) |
| 2007-04-18 |
| April 18 (Bloomberg) -- Russia plans to build the world's longest tunnel, a transport and pipeline link under the Bering Strait to Alaska, as part of a $65 billion project to supply the U.S. with oil, natural gas and electricity from Siberia. The project, which Russia is coordinating with the U.S. and Canada, would take 10 to 15 years to complete, Viktor Razbegin, deputy head of industrial research at the Russian Economy Ministry, told reporters in Moscow today. State organizations and private companies in partnership would build and control the route, known as TKM-World Link, he said. A 6,000-kilometer (3,700-mile) transport corridor from Siberia into the U.S. will feed into the tunnel, which at 64 miles will be more than twice as long as the underwater section of the Channel Tunnel between the U.K. and France, according to the plan. The tunnel would run in three sections to link the two islands in the Bering Strait between Russia and the U.S. ``This will be a business project, not a political one,'' Maxim Bystrov, deputy head of Russia's agency for special economic zones, said at the media briefing. Russian officials will formally present the plan to the U.S. and Canadian governments next week, Razbegin said. The Bering Strait tunnel will cost $10 billion to $12 billion and the rest of the investment will be spent on the entire transport corridor, the plan estimates. ``The project is a monster,'' Yevgeny Nadorshin, chief economist with Trust Investment Bank in Moscow, said in an interview. ``The Chinese are crying out for our commodities and willing to finance the transport links, and we're sending oil to Alaska. What, Alaska doesn't have oil?'' Finance Agencies Tsar Nicholas II, Russia's last emperor, was the first Russian leader to approve a plan for a tunnel under the Bering Strait, in 1905, 38 years after his grandfather sold Alaska to America for $7.2 million. World War I ended the project. The planned undersea tunnel would contain a high-speed railway, highway and pipelines, as well as power and fiber- optic cables, according to TKM-World Link. Investors in the so- called public-private partnership include OAO Russian Railways, national utility OAO Unified Energy System and pipeline operator OAO Transneft, according to a press release which was handed out at the media briefing and bore the companies' logos. Russia and U.S. may each eventually take 25 percent stakes, with private investors and international finance agencies as other shareholders, Razbegin said. ``The governments will act as guarantors for private money,'' he said. The World Link will save North America and Far East Russia $20 billion a year on electricity costs, said Vasily Zubakin, deputy chief executive officer of OAO Hydro OGK, Unified Energy's hydropower unit and a potential investor. Transport Electricity ``It's cheaper to transport electricity east, and with our unique tidal resources, the potential is real,'' Zubakin said. Hydro OGK plans by 2020 to build the Tugurskaya and Pendzhinskaya tidal plants, each with capacity of as much as 10 gigawatts, in the Okhotsk Sea, close to Sakhalin Island. The project envisions building high-voltage power lines with capacity of up to 15 gigawatts to supply the new rail links and also export to northern America. Russian Railways is working on the rail route from Pravaya Lena, south of Yakutsk in the Sakha republic, to Uelen on the Bering Strait, a 3,500 kilometer stretch. The link could carry commodities from east Siberia and Sakha to North American export markets, said Artur Alexeyev, Sakha's vice president. The two regions hold most of Russia's metal and mineral reserves ``and yet only 1.5 percent of it is developed due to lack of infrastructure and tough conditions,'' Alexeyev said. Cluster Projects Rail links in Russia and the U.S., where an almost 2,000 kilometer stretch from Angora to Fort Nelson in Canada would continue the route, would cost up to $15 billion, Razbegin said. With cargo traffic of as much as 100 million tons annually expected on the World Link, the investments in the rail section could be repaid in 20 years, he said. ``The transit link is that string on which all our industrial cluster projects could hang,'' Zubakin said. Japan, China and Korea have expressed interest in the project, with Japanese companies offering to burrow the tunnel under the Bering Strait for $60 million a kilometer, half the price set down in the project, Razbegin said. ``This will certainly help to develop Siberia and the Far East, but better port infrastructure would do that too and not cost $65 billion,'' Trust's Nadorshin said. ``For all we know, the U.S. doesn't want to make Alaska a transport hub.'' The figures for the project come from a pre-feasibility study. A full feasibility study could be funded from Russia's investment fund, set aside for large infrastructure projects, Bystrov said. To contact the reporters on this story: Yuriy Humber in Moscow at yhumber@bloomberg.net ; Bradley Cook in Moscow at bcook7@bloomberg.net |
| Posted by:3dc |
| #22 "The stormy oceans will NOT be calm until CHINA = CHINESE COMMIES CONTROL IT", or CCP adage to that effect. That being said, the RUSSIANS love their railroads, which they've already speculated or are considering building in their proposed tunnel. PRAVDA article > it was a mistake for Russia to sell Alaska to America. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2007-04-18 23:54 |
| #21 A treaty with China is worth about as much as the piece of paper Chamberlain received from Hitler. Thank you, ZF. This is true on all levels in whatever dealings with communist China we may have, EVER. Bravo! |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-04-18 23:42 |
| #20 Pipe dream. The transportation link is too long. We import oil from Alaska down in the lower 48 because there's limited demand and limited refining capacity in Alaska. The people that need the materials (petroleum, raw ores, electricity, etc.) are far from the import point. You still have to move it another 2000-3000 miles before it can be used. The closest point to Russia in the US is the Seward Peninsula. It's still another 300 or so miles to Fairbanks, the closest link to any road or rail transfer point. That part of the world is not easy to build in, or to maintain infrastructure. Developing a half-dozen year-round harbors linked to a robust infrastructure would make a lot more sense. That way, exports could go to the US, Canada, Japan, China, Australia, and Latin America, at a far cheaper price. The person that came up with this needs to have to actually VISIT the places he plans to link. I think that would be MOST educational, especially if the visit was made in the dead of winter. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2007-04-18 23:16 |
| #19 p: The alternative is the Russian Far East falls to the Chinese. Not many people know that it's stated Chinese Government policy to recover all territory lost to 'Unjust colonial wars' which includes a big slice of the Russian Far East and which makes the rest non-viable as Russian territory. Correct. China has signed a few treaties ratifying the existing Sino-Russian border. The problem with Chinese treaties, though, is that they reject them as "unequal" treaties and tear them up as soon as they are militarily capable of achieving their territorial objectives. A treaty with China is worth about as much as the piece of paper Chamberlain received from Hitler. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2007-04-18 22:51 |
| #18 Suuuuuure, America's best interests center upon delivery of vital petroleum based resources from Putin and his gang of Soviet thugs. Anyone who actually believes this, please step to the back of the class. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-04-18 21:41 |
| #17 USMC6743's got it right. The alternative is the Russian Far East falls to the Chinese. Not many people know that it's stated Chinese Government policy to recover all territory lost to 'Unjust colonial wars' which includes a big slice of the Russian Far East and which makes the rest non-viable as Russian territory. One of the best ideas I've heard in a long time. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2007-04-18 21:04 |
| #16 prolly gonna do it on the cheap with, like, 48 paleos doing the excavating |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-04-18 20:26 |
| #15 THE BIG DIG anyone recall how much has been spent in boston already... Approximately 14.6 billion the last time I looked; there are a number of unsettled lawsuits & redesigns that will in all likelihood push the cost of the project to at least $16 b. Yes, file this under 'The Son of Bad Idea Jeans'... |
| Posted by: Raj 2007-04-18 19:52 |
| #14 Gotta keep an eye on the Russkies. They already tried to claim we 'stole' Alaska from them, but fortunately we kept the receipt. Now they're gonna dig teir way in... |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2007-04-18 19:47 |
| #13 Do any of the Rantburgers know what the rock formations are like near the Berring Stait? Rocky. That would be my guess. ;-) |
| Posted by: Natural Law 2007-04-18 19:05 |
| #12 Lots of money for firms like AP's. Sewage Water food power repair equipment Maybe a boom to make the pipeline look small? |
| Posted by: 3dc 2007-04-18 18:48 |
| #11 #5 & #7. |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2007-04-18 18:35 |
| #10 i have a few words on this one. THE BIG DIG anyone recall how much has been spent in boston already |
| Posted by: sinse 2007-04-18 17:51 |
| #9 Life imitating art? Battle Beneath the Earth |
| Posted by: ed 2007-04-18 17:44 |
| #8 Before the Soviet Union fell apart, I did a creative writing assignment on the USSR invading the US via tunnel between Siberia and Alaska as a humor project. Life imitating art? Matrix loading from my head? I'm scared either way! |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2007-04-18 17:35 |
| #7 If the US would become dependent on Eastern Siberia energy, then the US would have to help protect the region. Russia doesn't have the military might and can't afford the cost of protecting Eastern Siberia from China. Smart Ivan! |
| Posted by: USMC6743 2007-04-18 17:10 |
| #6 Any word from Green Peace et al? Good grief given the fuss about a little oil exploration this ought to start an armed insurrection. Oh, that's right they don't believe in guns ;^) |
| Posted by: AlanC 2007-04-18 17:06 |
| #5 The US should buy Eastern Siberia before the Chinese walk in and take it. |
| Posted by: Grunter 2007-04-18 16:53 |
| #4 ``The Chinese are crying out for our commodities and willing to finance the transport links, and we're sending oil to Alaska. What, Alaska doesn't have oil?'' What Alaska doesn't have are claims on 1/2 of Russian territory. Economically, it's more efficient to send the raw materials to China. It's will end up in the US anyway as finished goods. |
| Posted by: ed 2007-04-18 16:38 |
| #3 Not quite as technically far-fetched as I first thought. The nearest plate boundary to the Bering Strait is the convergent boundary of the Aleutian Islands, quite a ways to the south (although a large quake could be felt there). That said, the real issue is economic. That's a sh*tload of money for transport - do we really need/want a major rail and truck route through Alaska? Maybe energy (though that doesn't need a tunnel), but I wouldn't trust the Russkies to supply it. Too many opportunities for blackmail. Nah, this is just a |
| Posted by: Spot 2007-04-18 16:32 |
| #2 I'll believe it when I see it finished. I hope we're not |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2007-04-18 16:20 |
| #1 One tthing I would be very concerned about is earthquakes. IIRC there was an earthquake in Alaska that rivelled the Sumatra earthquake for intensity. Do any of the Rantburgers know what the rock formations are like near the Berring Stait? I suspect they will be very difficult to dig through. Al |
| Posted by: Frozen Al 2007-04-18 16:17 |
