Transshipment of oil cargo falls over 2-fold at the seaport of Caucasus in 2006
In 2006, seaport of Caucasus decreased transshipment of oil over two-fold, year-on-year — to 2.5 million tons, Interfax-Yug reports according to yuga.ru. From 1999 off-harbor facilities of the port started transshipment of oil cargo delivered by sea-and-river going vessels, which then was overloaded to sea tankers to be transported to the place of destination. In 2005 the volume of cargo transshipped at the complex decreased to 5.4 million tons from 9 million tons in 2004. In 2006 the complex handled only 2.5 million tons.
The port’s authorities attribute the decrease to tightening of the customs activities. Russian companies transferred their storage vessels to Ukraine where they continued transshipment of oil cargo. Thus, customs failed to raise transfer of funds to the budget since payment stopped to come from those companies while Rosmorport FSUE and Administration of Taman seaports SUE lost over $40 million. These resources were received by Ukrainian companies.
Krasnodar region authorities asked Russian Government to consider the situation in the port of Caucasus since the problem may be solved only through a decree of the Federal Customs Service or a special governmental decree.
