Russia is in talks with Japan to line up between $2 billion and $3 billion in loans to help it build a gas pipeline in Russia's Far East, Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said today.

A Reuters report also quoted Shmatko as saying that Russia's oil production would reach 3.87 billion barrels this year, up from 3.85 billion barrels last year, when it fell for the first time in a decade.