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Tuesday, 02 December, 2008, 22:10 GMT | more >>

Russian exports bottleneck



By Upstream staff 

Russian oil export capacity has almost reached a ceiling and a modest medium-term boost is possible only on the Baltic Sea and via active use of a ChevronTexaco pipeline, according to the government.

Russia's top energy official Viktor Khristenko said he shared the point of view of pipeline monopoly Transneft that Russian exports and even domestic supplies were facing the worst bottleneck ever due to booming output.

"Today we are using our pipelines at a rate of 100%. It would be better if we had some reserves in capacity," Khristenko told reporters.

"Further options of increasing exports depend mainly on the Baltic Pipeline System. All other options have been exhausted. But we should probably not forget about the CPC," he said.

The Baltic Pipeline System links fields in Western Siberia to Transneft's flagship Baltic port of Primorsk. The firm wants to expand it to 1 million barrels per day by the end of 2004 from the current 850,000 bpd and is waiting for government approval to expand it to 1.25 million bpd.

CPC, the only major private pipeline on the territory of the former Soviet Union, is designed by Chevron to pump Kazakh crude to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, Reuters reported.


Thursday, 27 May, 2004, 15:15 GMT  | last updated: Thursday, 28 April, 2005, 14:31 GMT

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