Gazprom Neft can ship up to 6 mln tonnes of oil via ESPO system annually starting in 2016
MOSCOW. Jan 13 (Interfax) - Gazprom Neft will, starting in 2016, be able to ship as much as six million tonnes of oil via the Eastern Siberia - Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline system annually, the head of Russian oil pipeline company OJSC Transneft , Nikolai Tokarev, told the press on Monday.
"But they have said that this oil will be delivered from Eastern Siberia and not from Western Siberia," Tokarev said.
Gazprom Neft oil shipments via the ESPO system will be made by subsidiary Gazprom Neft-Angara LLC, Tokarev said, and will be growing for 2016 on. "There is something of a dynamic by year," he said.
Gazprom Neft may buy 49% of the Zung Quat oil refinery in Vietnam. A per an intergovernmental agreement between Russia and Vietnam, Gazprom Neft is to be supplying the refinery with at least six million tonnes via the ESPO system through the port at Kozmino by 2018: 3 million tonnes in 2015, 3.6 million tonnes in 2016, 4.8 million tonnes in 2017, and at least 6 million tonnes annually from 2018 on.
Tympuchikanskoye is one of three fields in Gazprom Neft's Chonskaya project in Eastern Siberia, which includes the adjacent Vakunaiskoye and Ignyalinskoye fields. All of the fields in are located on the border of Irkutsk region and Yakutia. Gazprom Neft has concluded an agreement with Japanese JOGMEC on joint geological study of Ignyalinskoye. The company also held talks on joint development of the other two fields with companies from Korea, but decided to carry out geological exploration independently.
Gazprom Neft-Angara LLC holds the license to Tympuchikanskoye, which was issued in 2005. The Chonskaya group is located 80 kilometers from the ESPO system.