The opening of the oil terminal in the port of Ust-Luga (Leningrad region), the terminus of the Baltic Pipeline System (BPS-2) second phase, is scheduled for March 20, 2012, some sources familiar with the matter told PortNews. However, the date is not final.
Some tanker companies have received orders for charter oil tanker on that date. A source in SCF Group also said that the shipping company is considering the possibility of its ship call at the port on March 20, 2012.
Andrei Aprelenko, CEO of towing company Rosnefteflot also confirmed in an interview with PortNews that if a tanker arrives at the terminal his company will be ready to provide tugboats to tow the tanker to the terminal berth.
According to a source in Rosneftbunker (the BTS-2 terminal’s operator) on March 14 Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin will be visiting and inspecting the UL oil terminal’s berths. The date of terminal commissioning will likely be announced following the visit results.
The launch date of the BPS-2 facility had been postponed from November 2011 to the first quarter of 2012 since some of the berths for handling large-tonnage tankers were not completed at the time.
The Baltic Pipeline System-2 project is being implemented in line with the Russian Government’s order (November 26, 2008). Transneft has constructed the 1000 km pipeline of capacity of 38 million tons of crude oil a year (the first phase - 30m tons), five pumping stations (PS), reconstructed existing pumping stations - "Unecha" and "Andreapol," and completed Ust-Luga Oil Depot with tank farm of 8 tanks of capacity of 50000 cbm each.