LUKoil Extends Its Cooperation With China

Russia?s largest private oil company Lukoil openув its new office in Beijing.
As the company?s vice president Valery Golovushkin said, ?Lukoil is ready to deliver to China as much oil as infrastructure allows.?

He added that the opening of the office in China would enable the company to obtain detailed information on projects that Lukoil hopes to take part in.

He said the company firstly intended to increase oil deliveries to China via pipelines. ?A pipeline from Kazakhstan to China with a total annual output of 20 million metric tons will become operational by the end of this year?.
The pipeline will enable direct oil deliveries to China from West Siberia, and Lukoil is ready to supply oil according to its quota.
He said railroad oil deliveries were not planned since they were not profitable for Russian companies due to high transportation costs.

He added that Russia needed deeper seaports in order to increase its oil exports. The port in Novorossiisk can only receive tankers with a displacement of 130-140 metric tons. It is not profitable for tankers with such displacement to transport oil long distances, he said.

Lukoil annually exports 50 million metric tons of oil and some 15 million tons of oil products. ?How oil exports develop in the future depends solely on economic factors,? Golovushkin said.