Transneft's Pipeline Fire Halts 20% of Export Supply

The Saratov region's emergencies ministry said on its web site that some 180 firefighters and 62 vehicles helped extinguish the fire in two hours on a territory of more than 2,000 square meters.

Novorossiisk had been due to export 840,000 barrels per day of oil in March out of Russia's total exports of around 4.3 million bpd.

Oil firms Surgut, Tatneft, TNK-BP and LUKoil had been due to load tankers between March 4 and 7.

The same pipeline supplies Ukraine's Lysychansk refinery, which belongs to TNK-BP, half owned by oil major BP.

It also partly ensures deliveries to the Ukrainian Black Sea ports of Odessa and Yuzhny, which are due to get more than 200,000 bpd of Russian crude for re-exports this month.

An official from Ukrainian pipeline monopoly Ukrtransnafta said Lysychansk was also cut off from Russian supplies but was hoping to get alternative deliveries from a pipeline running through the towns of Samara, Michurinsk and Kremenchug.

Sources at the ports of Odessa and Yuzhny also said Transneft had informed port authorities that it was working toward rerouting crude previously supplied via the now-damaged pipeline to the route via Michurinsk and Kremenchug.

Russia, the world's second-largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia, sends over a quarter of its oil exports via the Black Sea ports of Novorossiisk, Odessa and Yuzhny. The rest goes via the Druzhba pipeline to Central Europe and the Baltic Sea port of Primorsk.

Source: The Moscow Times

Author: Ksenia Kochneva