Gazpromneft hopes to secure permission to ship oil to China in 2008 using the Atasu-Alashankou oil pipeline, Alexander Dyukov, the company's CEO, told journalists according to Interfax.
"The Industry and Energy Ministry has yet to give us permission to ship oil to China by the end of 2008, but we are now working on solving this issue. Hopefully, the solution will be found in the near future," he said.
The company hopes the question will be solved positively, "pipeline capacity permitting, and as long as China needs these purchases," Dyukov said. The company expects to ship just under a million tonnes of oil to China, he said.
Gazpromneft was not included in the list of companies allowed to ship oil to China in 2008 via Kazakhstan using the Atasu-Alashnkou oil pipeline. The company said earlier that it had filed an application with the Industry and Energy Ministry for permission to supply 1,08 million tonnes of oil in April-December 2008.
In the first quarter of 2008, Gazpromneft was allowed to export 150,000 tonnes of oil to China through Kazakhstan. The company encountered transportation problems after failing to agree transit issues with Kazakhstan's transport monopoly, KazTransOil.