Transnefteproduct may pump 0.7% more petroleum products in 2010, 3.1% more for export
MOSCOW. Feb 16 (Interfax) - Russian petroleum product pipeline operator Transnefteproduct may increase overall shipments 0.7% this year, and increase exports 3.1%, company materials say.
Plans for this year involve pumping 28.57 million tonnes of oil products through its system overall, including 20.23 million tonnes for export, compared with 28.731 million tonnes and 19.615 million tonnes, respectively, in 2009, the company said.
Diesel accounts for 82% of the products that Transnefteproduct pumps, and this proportion is set to rise by the year.
The company pumped 18.9 million tonnes of diesel with a sulfur limit of 1,000 ppm - 76.7% of all diesel shipped in 2009. It exported 2.54 million tonnes more diesel with 10 ppm sulfur content via the port of Primorsk in 2009.
Exports of 10 ppm diesel via Primorsk should rise by 1.69 million tonnes in 2010. Overall product exports should go up 600,000 tonnes. Transnefteproduct plans to pump 3.8 million tonnes of product via the port of Ventspils, as in 2009.
Transnefteproduct expects the Russian government issue a resolution on the estimated 76.7 billion-ruble South pipeline project "in the next one or two months," company chief Vladimir Shimanovich told reporters.
The document will set down the timeframe and sources of funding for the pipeline, although money may have to be borrowed, Shimanovich said.
Shimanovich did not say when work on the pipeline might begin. "We need to decide on the concept 'launching construction'. For me, this is when the first bulldozer starts work. I can't say the first spade will break the ground this year," he said.
The 1,422-km South pipeline will pass through Syzran, Saratov and Volgograd to the port of Novorossiisk. It should be capable of carrying 8.7 million tpa of diesel, 8.1 million tonnes of it for export.
Shimanovich also said Transnefteproduct expects that the North project will be at full capacity in 2013, but that achieving this is contingent on the TANECO refinery in Nizhnekamsk launching production of quality-compliant diesel fuel, with sulfur content of 10 ppm, he said.
"TANECO is holding us up for now," he said.
The North pipeline should carry 5.91 million tonnes of diesel or 80% of its design capacity in 2010. It carried 4.22 million tonnes of petroleum products in 2009.