OAO Transneft will offer a unified price schedule for its pipelines, to make all export routes equally attractive to oil companies, CEO Semyon Vainshtok said today in an interview in the newspaper Kommersant. The farther oil is shipped, the less it will cost per barrel, he said. Transneft Vice President Sergei Grigoryev confirmed his remarks. The new pricing system, which is still being developed, could be approved as early as 2009, when the pipeline to Asia starts operating, Grigoryev said in a telephone interview yesterday.
Transneft is investing billions of dollars in new links to improve export capacity, tap new markets and bypass transit countries, such as Belarus, where a pricing dispute briefly disrupted supplies in this year. „Companies should pay the same to ship from Surgut to Rotterdam as from Surgut to Kozmino,” Grigoryev said in a telephone interview today. Oil-rich western Siberia, where Surgut is located, will probably serve as the geographical base for the pricing system, he said. Kozmino is on the Sea of Japan. Transneft aims to have 20% reserve capacity by 2010, Vainshtok said in the interview. Its pipelines now have less, then 20 million tons of spare capacity and are full along most export routes, he said. The company exported 250 million tons of crude last year, he said.
An $11 billion pipeline the company is building across eastern Siberia to Skovorodino near China will add another 30 million tons of capacity a year by 2009 when it starts operating, Vainshtok said. Transneft will recoup the investment in 16 years, he said. Transneft also plans a link capable of shipping 50 million tons a year from near the Belarusian border to Primorsk on the Baltic Sea, Russia’s largest oil port. Transneft could increase capacity to as much as 80 million tons, the same volume the Druzhba pipeline now carries across Belarus to Europe, Vainshtok said. The government will probably approve plans to build a pipeline bypassing Belarus within two weeks, which would allow construction to start as early as April, Vainshtok said in the interview. (Bloomberg)
Producing journalism that is worthy of the name is a costly business. For over 30 years, the publishers, editors and reporters of the Budapest Business Journal have striven to bring you business news that works, information that you can trust, that is factual, accurate and presented without fear or favor.Newspaper organizations across the globe have struggled to find a business model that allows them to continue to excel, without compromising their ability to perform. Most recently, some have experimented with the idea of involving their most important stakeholders, their readers.
We would like to offer that same opportunity to our readers. We would like to invite you to help us deliver the quality business journalism you require. Hit our Support the BBJ button and you can choose the how much and how often you send us your contributions.
