LUKoil eyes Primorsk-Vysotsk oil pipeline project
OAO LUKOIL is considering the project of the oil products pipeline (a spur line from the main pipeline "North") from the port of Primorsk (LLC BaltTransServis - a subsidiary of OJSC AK Transnefteproduct) to its own marine oil terminal based in the port of Vysotsk (RPK Vysotsk LUKOIL-II), Transnefteproduct said. LUKOIL has recently offered the Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft to implement this project. Transneft’s subsidiary Transnefteproduct is the owner and operator of the oil pipeline "North”. This idea of building the spur line was discussed as early as 2006-2007, when the "North" project was under construction.
At the end of April 2012 Leningrad region Gov Valery Serdyukov held a special meeting on this project. According a PortNews source familiar with the matter, the official instructed "to assist" LUKOIL in implementing the pipeline project. A source in the Government of the Leningrad Region has confirmed this meeting.
A source close to Transnefteproduct told PortNews that there is neither feasibility study of the project nor project documents as yet. "The project is still under discussion, technical and economic study," said the source. LUKOIL has offered to nearly double its resource base, which is delivered to the project "North" (approximately 4 million tons of diesel fuel per year). Part of this volume the oil major intends to export through its own terminal in Vysotsk. Lukoil said in its statement that the total amount of export oil supplies through the port of Primorsk will not shrink. "The utilization of this spur line in the interests of owners of other resources was not discussed," the source added.
Experts estimate that this project could reach its full capacity within two years.
According to the analytical team of PortNews IAA light oil exports through the port of Primorsk (delivery only via the "North") by the 2011 year-end results, amounted to 5 million tons versus 5.8 mln tons in 2010. JSC Transnefteproduct plans to boost pumping through the pipeline "North", including through the construction of the second line of the pipeline from the Kirishi refinery (Leningrad region) to Primorsk.
Exports of diesel fuel through the RPK Vysotsk "LUKOIL-II» (rail delivery) in 2011 totaled 1.9 million tons. Total volume handled at the terminal in 2011 amounted to 9,687, 600 tons of dark and light oil, which is about 20% lower than in 2010.