Pipeliners

24.04.2006 12:07 [Neftegaz.ru] - Russia's planned oil pipeline to Asia will help cut deliveries to Europe, which is currently being oversupplied with Russian crude, Transneft's head Semen Veinschtok said."So far we cannot reduce supplies as all our exports are going to Europe. But as soon as we divert (flows) to China, South Korea, Australia, Japan it will immediately take away crude from our European colleagues," he added.Veinschtok has repeatedly said that the pipeline would help diversify Russian oil flows and cut discounts on the country's mainstay Urals crude blend in European markets.Veinschtok said Transneft planned to use a shipping fee of $38 per tonne of crude oil on the Asian-Pacific pipeline route to make it competitive with current fees paid on the route to the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk.The $11.5-billion pipeline will ship 600,000 barrels per day at the first stage, mainly to China, with supplies rising to 1.6 million bpd at the second stage, when a big terminal is build on the Russian Pacific coast.