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.
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.
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.
