According to Losyukov, “It’s settled, there was a decision taken in our government. The pipeline will go to Nakhodka [and] the decision [will] be announced officially in the coming months.”

“It’s more advantageous for us to build on our own territory and to handle the marketing ourselves than to send everything to another country and in a sense, depend entirely on it. That’s the principle behind the operation of any pipeline, it’s preferable to have it on one’s own territory and to dispose of everything running through it oneself.

“We currently supply China with oil by rail and the amount is increasing. If there are enough resources, another pipeline will probably be built to China,” added Losyukov.

The Japanese government, however, has apparently decided to keep a wait-and-see over the announcement until it gets the official notification from Moscow. According to an anonymous Foreign Ministry official, speaking to the AFP, “We know that there is such information as [Losyukov] has just said but officially we haven’t received any information from the Russian government confirming that they have just chosen the route to Nakhodka.”

“Of course the Japanese side is in favour of having the route to Nakhodka but we haven’t received any confirmation from the Russian government,” added the insider.

Japan has been pushing for the 4,000 km Siberia-Nakhodka pipeline for a while now and has offered to finance the cost of construction. China, in turn, has been pushing for a 2,400 km pipeline from Angarsk to Daqing for the past decade.