AP: Russia's Gazprom plans new Pacific gas pipeline

 Russian President Vladimir Putin gave his blessing on Monday to a plan to invest tens of billions of dollars to tap a new natural gas field in Siberia and build a new pipeline to the nation's Pacific coast for exports to Asia.

Putin met Monday with Alexei Miller, the CEO of state-controlled natural gas giant Gazprom, who briefed him on prospects of tapping the giant Chaynda deposit in the Yakutia region. Miller said the field is estimated to hold 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas.

He said Gazprom plans to build a 3,200-kilometer (2,000-mile) pipeline linking the field with Russia's Pacific port of Vladivostok. Miller said Gazprom would need to invest 430 billion rubles ($13.7 billion) to develop the field and 770 billion rubles ($24.4 billion) to build the pipeline by 2017.  MORE