Energy Ministry wants all East Siberian oil to be exported
MOSCOW. Dec 2 (Interfax) - The Russian Energy Ministry wants all oil produced in East Siberia to be exported, Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko told reporters.
"We are working on the basis that all East Siberian oil will be exported," Shmatko said.
Shmatko recalled that the government reduced the export duty on oil from fields in Eastern Siberia in order to spur production there. "If it's not being delivered, why did we reduce the export duty to zero?" he said.
There is not enough refining capacity in Russia's east that would make it possible to uphold the export and refining portions that have been stipulated.
However, companies must maintain "an overall balance between production and export volumes," he said.
Russia set the export duty to zero effective December 1 for oil extracted at 13 fields in Eastern Siberia: Vankorskoye, Yurubcheno-Tokhomskoye, Talakanskoye (including the eastern block), Alinskoye, Srednebotuobinskoye, Dulisminskoye, Verkhnechonskoye, Kuyumbinskoye, Severo-Talakanskoye, Vostochno-Alinskoye, Pilyudinskoye, Stanakhskoye and Verkhnepeleduiskoye.
At the beginning of November Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrei Slepnev said that the list of fields might be expanded. A source at the Energy Ministry told Interfax the fields being considered for inclusion on the list were the Yaraktinskoye, Danilovskoye, Markovskoye, Zapadno-Ayanskoye, Tagulskoye, Suzunskoye, Yuzhno-Talakanskoye, Vakunaiskoye and Chayandinskoye.