link
This is a logistics topic, but I don't see a logistics forum, so I'll dump it here.
[quoting in full]
Russia Plans World's Longest Tunnel, a Link to Alaska (Update2)
By Yuriy Humber and Bradley Cook
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 projects.
Siberian Commodities
The 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.
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 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.
``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.
Angora to Fort Nelson
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.
Rail links in Russia and the U.S., where an almost 2,000 kilometer stretch from Angora to Fort Nelson 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.
To contact the reporters on this story: Yuriy Humber in Moscow at yhumber@bloomberg.net ; Bradley Cook in Moscow at bcook7@bloomberg.net .
Last Updated: April 18, 2007 08:29 EDT
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Now that is interesting. If this pans out, it is a radical change in the way the world actually works according to some geopolitical nuts who inhabit this forum. Pan-Asian alliance indeed!
What I see is that Russia is fishing for American capital and technology to help her develop Siberia and to get America economically involved in the region. That cannot be good news to the greedy PRC bandits in Beijing. The PRC participation would be minimal.
Frankly the PRCs lack the skill to capitalize or manage anything like this. The Three Rivers Gorge DAM disaster proves that!
Japan can capitalize but they don't have the tunnel boring machine technology or experience either.
The Strunnel builders will be British and French with massive EU and USD capitalization. Look for arab bandits to invest in it too.
But once it opens up it will be Anericans and Canadians headed west to mine drill, and building Siberian geothermal and hydropower electric nets with Moscow charging them all that the market will bear for the privilege, if this pans out.
THAT IS APPLYING SMART ECONNOMIC AND GEOPOLITICAL LEVERAGE ON MOSCOWS PART. Since Stalin couldn't tame Siberia, get the North Americans to do it. Road nets, rail lines, power grids, airports built by Uncle and operated by Russians who charge Uncle foir the privelege! PRESENCE bought cheaply is what Moscow plots. That would be the correct RUSSIAN strategic counter to PRC bandit plans to steal Siberia and its resources for itself.
What does Uncle get out of it?
Construction contracts, a share of the gas and oil, some of the electricity, a new winter wonderland tourist trap vacation spot, and an economic ally.
Economic allies eventually become political/military allies as they have a common interest to defend.
This despite the Moscow protestations (for the PRC bandits' benefit) that this is just a "commercial" venture.
Russia has never done anything like this for a purely "commercial" reason in her long history.
No sir, the PRC bandits are not happy about this. Americans to the East, Americans to the South. Americans to the West. and NOW Americans to the NORTH-the traditional invasion route into the heart of the Han.
So I open the thread with this "farfetched" news story and wonder what anybody else thinks would be the consequences of a Bering Strunnel between Alaska and Siberia?
Herald |
