Understandings reached to speed up oil export scheduling, this a matter for 2017 - SPIMEX chief
LONDON. Nov 7 (Interfax) - The Russian Energy Ministry, oil pipeline operator Transneft and St. Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange (SPIMEX) will return to the issue of speeding up the scheduling of Russian oil exports in 2017, SPIMEX President Alexei Rybnikov said in an interview with Interfax.
The position schedule for the arrangement and flow of tonnage for Urals crude at Russian seaports currently appears later than schedules for all other countries. "This makes planning for market participants difficult and is ultimately reflected in the price," he said.
"The earlier the position schedule comes out with dates for the following month, the better. Ideally, for us to be competitive at least with respect to Brent, it ought to come out once a month. But right now it comes out in the last days of the month preceding the month of shipment," he said.
Rybnikov said that in order to resolve this issue, amendments needed to be made to the relevant government decree. That decree currently states that the export schedule, on the basis of which the position schedule is put together, comes out 15 days before the beginning of a quarter.
At the initial stage, in order to launch a futures contract for Russian Urals crude, it wad decided to form provisional schedules, which state how many tankers each company has for the next month, but without specific shipment dates, Rybnikov said.
"This is important, firstly, to understand who we as an exchange can clear for delivery. Secondly, it is a very important step towards changing the whole system for scheduling Russian oil exports. There are understandings that we will do that," he said.
The Energy Ministry has drafted a government decree to amend the rules for non-discriminatory access to trunk pipelines, proposing a provisional export schedule for shipments bound for Primorsk not later than 35 days prior to the start of a quarter.
In order to successfully launch trading in a futures contract for Urals, information about planned oil flows to Primorsk must be available to market participants not later than the fifth day of the month proceeding the month of delivery, the ministry has said in an explanatory note to the draft.
The ministry currently approves the oil export schedule for all routes not later than 15 days prior to the beginning of a quarter. On its basis, Transneft compiles position schedules to ship oil in one month by the 25th of the preceding month.
