ESPO crude exports from Kozmino port set to rise 7.2% to 16.3 m tons
Shipments of crude oil through LLC Spetsmornefteport Kozmino (export oil terminal) by the year-end results are expected to reach 16.3 million tons, up 1.1 million tons from last year’s figure or a 7.2-percent gain year-on-year, the company said in a statement.
The crude exports growth was fueled by the facility capacity expansion in the framework of the Phase 2 of the Eastern Siberia - Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline.
In November, ESPO crude was loaded from two piers of Spetsmornefteport Kozmino, which enabled the company to increase monthly volume of the commodity export to 1.6 million tons. In December, the oil terminal is expected to handle 200,000 tons more – 1.8 mln tons. Two last tankers will dock at the port on December 29.
This year, the major volume of oil tanker shipments, over 30 percent, were exported to Japan. China was the second consumer of the commodity - 25%. The U.S. imported 18% of ESPO brand oil. About 6 million tons were shipped to South Korea, Thailand and the Philippines. Singapore and Indonesia imported 2.5%, Taiwan and Malaysia - less than 1%. Trio of key importers remained the same, as a year earlier, but in 2011 the largest volume of ESPO crude oil was shipped to the U.S. - 27%, to Japan - 19% and to China - 18%.
The next year, Russia plans to export through Spetsmornefteport Kozmino 21 million tons of oil. Of the volume 18 million tons will be supplied to the terminal through the main oil pipeline and 3 million tons will be transported by rail from Skovorodino. According to the approved schedule in January the port will handle 18 tankers, each tanker shipment - 100 mt. of ESPO brand oil.
Spetsmornefteport Kozmino LLC (Special Oil Port of Kozmino, Primorsky Territory), a subsidiary of Transneft JSC, started operating in late 2009. Kozmino Oil Terminal is the terminus of the ESPO Oil Pipeline (Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean). While the ESPO project is under construction the crude oil is being delivered to the terminal by the railroad. Kozmino Oil Terminal capacity is 15 million tons of crude oil (ESPO brand) a year, expandable to 30m t/y. The first export oil cargo was shipped from the terminal on Dec. 28, 2009. Russian oil exports through Kozmino in 2011 totaled 15.19 million tons. The commodity is exported primarily to the Asia-Pacific region.
