Pipeliners

Friday, November 24, 2006 Moscow Times - Rosneft said Thursday that China would get only half of its Russian crude oil from a new pipeline to Asia, marking a victory by the railway monopoly over its pipeline counterpart in their battle to transport oil. Dmitry Bogdanov, export chief at state oil company Rosneft, the main supplier of Russian oil to China, said the rest of the crude from the initial stage of the Asian pipeline would go on to the Pacific by rail. That would mean China would only get half of its expected 600,000 barrels per day from the pipeline that, in the first stage, will run to Skovorodino, near the Chinese border. The news is a boost for railway monopoly Russian Railways, or RZD, headed by a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, Vladimir Yakunin, who has long sought to preserve current rail shipments to Asia even after Russia builds the pipeline in 2008. The development is also positive for Japan. Tokyo had appeared to have lost a battle with Beijing over Russian oil and was only likely to see oil from the pipeline after the pipeline link was expanded to 1.6 million bpd and extended to the Pacific, sometime in the next decade. The project is being built by state pipeline monopoly Transneft, and Rosneft is set to become the key shipper on the route. Transneft declined to make an immediate comment.