Russia's railways are playing an active role in the development of Russia's growing exports of oil to China and are proceeding with the first stage of the project with a total capital investment of around 13 billion roubles. The project envisages an annual increase of oil exports between the two countries.

In 2007, Russian Railways will be spending over 2.5 billion roubles on the project, including the constructing of 26.5 km of track between Karymskaya and Zabaikalsk and the reconstruction of the stations at Aga, Shakhtyorskaya, Khadabylak, Borzya. The track is being extended at the above stations, signalling and communications systems are being upgraded and other essential work carried out. As a result, the through and processing capacity of the stations will increase.

In the medium-term, Russian Railways will spend 1 billion roubles in 2008 reconstructing the track between Karymskaya and Zabaikalsk as part of its investment programme.

Oil exports to China amounted to 9.3 million tons in 2005 and increased to 10.2 million in 2006. The capacity of the border crossings will allow Russian Railways to export up to 15 millions tons of oil to China in 2007.