RussNeft Launches New Terminal and Will Increase its Oil Production and Export Volumes.
NK RussNeft OAO has launched an oil loading terminal in the Bryansk region. The new facility has a transshipment capacity of 5 million tons of crude oil per year.
NK RussNeft OAO has launched an oil loading terminal in the Bryansk region. The new facility has a transshipment capacity of 5 million tons of crude oil per year. RussNeft was established two years ago by the former head of the state oil company Slavneft Mikhail Gutseriev and his partners. In the structure of RussNeft there are 25 production enterprises, a transport company and Moscow's second largest retail network. RussNeft's recoverable reserves exceed 600 million tons and its yearly production volume totals 14 million tons of crude oil. Gutseriev informed the press that in the current year about 2.2 million tons of crude oil would be exported via the new terminal. The Company plans to ship 40,000 tons in June; 180,000 tons in July followed by 400,000 tons a month beginning from August. The crude oil received at the terminal will be pumped from the pipeline into railway tank-cars and carried to the refineries of Byelorussia, Baltic States and Eastern Europe. Gutseriev said that exact delivery routes would be finalized on a monthly basis and depend on the oil market. RussNeft is heading for 100 percent export excluding the crude oil to be delivered to Yukos' refinery in Syzran under a processing agreement the volumes ranging from 100 to 150 thousand tons per month. The capability of the terminal’s pipe rack is about 350 tank-cars in a day. In future Russneft is planning to expand the transshipment capacity of the terminal to 7 million tons of crude oil per year. The head of the Company confirmed that they are thinking of building a marine export terminal in Kaliningrad of seven-million-ton capacity in a year. "Presently we are developing this project, it's a big sea terminal that will enable us to direct our export to Europe," - he said. However he didn't specify any time periods of the construction having noted that it would depend on the production growth plans.
PRODUCTION AND REFINING PLANS
RussNeft is Aiming at 20 Million Ton Crude Oil Production in the End of 2005.
"It may be achieved through buying new assets, new technologies and techniques," - explained Gutseriev. According to him by the end of June RussNeft may announce purchase of a new company producing two million tons per year. However he refused to communicate more details. The Company's investment program specifies more than $200 million of investments in the current year. Moreover RussNeft is discussing participation in the development of oil fields abroad. Specifically according to Gutseriev, the Company is talking to Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan as well as planning something in Angola and Iraq. At the same time Gutseriev is making plans for turning RussNeft within a ten year period into an international oil holding company producing 60-80 million tons of crude in a year.
"It's going to be something unbelievable and new. It is the most important project of my life in which I shall be able to realize my dreams and ideas," - said Gutseriev.
So far RussNeft has no own refining capacities. Gutseriev said that the Company was thinking of either building a new refinery or buying an existing one.
"It is a matter of six months to two years when we’ll have our own refinery," - he promised.
According to Gutseriev, presently the Company is assessing feasibility of constructing a refinery either in Bryansk or in another region of Russia as well as talking to the owners of some refineries in RF.
MISCELLANEOUS
Representatives of the Company didn't confirm the intention of buying a fifty percent stake of Yukos
Gutseriev informed the press that RussNeft is still planning to do the IPO. The possibility of stock floatation, its volumes and terms will depend on what RussNeft is going to be in future.
"If it is a vertically integrated company producing 20-25 million tons of crude oil and possessing 500 sites of retail network and one or two refineries the IPO volume will be much different from the case when there is none of the above," - said he.
Earlier it was reported that the shareholders were planning to take out 20 percent of their securities to the stock market. He also said the owners of the Company had some sale proposals from the Chinese and a number of western companies.
“But we turned down these proposals,” – said Gutseriev.
RussNeft turnover in the current year will make up $3 billion.