Oil shipments through Kozmino port surge 39.5% in H1
VLADIVOSTOK. July 2 (Interfax) - Oil shipments through LLC Spetsmornefteport Kozmino, the terminus port of the Eastern Siberia - Pacific Ocean oil pipeline, rose 39.5% year-on-year to 10.6 million tonnes in the first half of 2013, the seaport's reported.
Kozmino handles 1.6 million to 1.9 million tonnes of ESPO blend crude exports per month.
Kozmino said that oil shipments to the port by rail and trunk pipeline thanks to the launch of the second phase of the ESPO pipeline have made it possible to dramatically increase transshipment of oil to countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
Japan was again the leading destination of tankers sailing from Kozmino, accounting for 35.5% or 3.8 million tonnes of the oil shipped from the port. China was second with 23.6% or 2.5 million tonnes, and South Korea accounted for 11.4% or 1.2 million tonnes.
South Korea was followed by the Philippines with 8.3%, the United States with 5.7%, Malaysia with 4.5%, Thailand with 2.3%, New Zealand with 1%, Taiwan with 0.9% and Indonesia with 0.8%. The first 100,000 tonnes of Russian oil from Kozmino were shipped to New Zealand in June.
A total of 9.1 million tonnes of oil was shipped to the Kozmino port by pipeline in the first half, and 1.5 million tonnes was shipped by rail from Skovorodino in Amur Region.
The port is expected to handle 1.9 million tonnes of oil exports in July. It is scheduled to receive 1.65 million tonnes view the ESPO II pipeline and 250,000 by rail.
The Kozmino oil port, located at the terminus of the ESPO in Nakhodka in Russia's Far East, has capacity to handle 30 million tonnes of oil annually following its expansion and the launch of ESPO II. It expects to handle 21 million tonnes of oil in 2013.
