Kazakhstan sees crude exports via Russia unaffected by Urals quality incident

Astana, April 30 - Neftegaz.RU. Kazakh pipeline operator KazTransOil said its crude exports via Russia have not been affected by the issue with the quality of Urals crude last week that resulted in a halt to supplies via the Druzhba pipeline to Europe, Platts reported.

"The transportation of oil through the Atyrau-Samara pipeline is carried out in a normal mode. The company carries out contractual obligations to Kazakhstans shippers," it said.

Kazakhstan exports around 337,000 b/d of crude via Russian pipelines, including the main flow to the Russian Baltic port of Ust-Luga.

Market sources said some cargoes at Ust-Luga were affected by a contamination of Urals crude, caused by an excess of organic chloride. The contamination was 1st recorded in Belarus, following which crude supplies via the 1 million b/d Druzhba pipeline to Europe were halted.

"The delivery of resources of Kazakhstan?s producers into Transnefts pipeline system for shipments from the port of Ust-Luga has been secured in full volume and met required quality organic chlorides [in Kazakh crude] corresponds to specifications and amounted to 3.3 ppm," KazTransOil said.

The company said a cargo with Kazakh crude was recently loaded at Ust-Luga on the Prometheus, with the next cargo scheduled for loading into the Montego.

"KazTransOil has not faced any financial losses [from the crude quality incident], given that crude transportation via the Atyrau-Samara pipeline had not been suspended. April plan for crude pumping [is estimated] to be carried out in full," it said.

Russias trunk pipeline operator, Transneft, has said an initial investigation had indicated the entry point where contaminated crude entered the system was in the Samara region, adding the investigation was ongoing.

Earlier, Russian officials said crude arriving into Belarus through the Druzhba pipeline was now of export quality and it hoped to restore stable a supply of high-quality crude via Druzhba within 2 weeks.