To Claude Mandil, executive director of IEA, Russia has not found enough reserves to warrant the pipeline.

"I'm not sure enough attention has been paid to the necessary exploration in Siberia. There is no absolute certainty that there are enough reserves," said Mandil. Furthermore, Mandil believes that the decision as to where the pipeline will be built "is becoming very political".

China and Japan both have rival bids for the pipeline, which is designed to pipe around one million barrels of crude per day. The decision as to where the pipeline will terminate is also seen as a commercial and political battle of commerce and will be between Yukos, which advocates the China terminus and Transneft, which wants a Pacific coast terminus.