Oil Pipeline Monopoly News

Russia's second-biggest bank VTB is buying one of the biggest grain terminals at the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, in a surprise move that gives the state lender more control over the country's main deep-sea grain export hub.VTB, which already owns a stake in another grain terminal at the port, said on Thursday that it was buying 100 percent of Novorossiysk Grain Terminal from Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port (NSCP).Its deal to buy the terminal from NSCP, which is controlled…

Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft has rejected a proposal from its rival Summa Group to complete a deal to buy a Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port (NCSP), a Transneft spokesman said on Monday.If the deal goes ahead it will allow Transneft to take control of Russia's largest port operator. But Transneft said earlier this month it had suspended talks on the deal after the authorities arrested the co-owner of Summa, Ziyavudin Magomedov, on charges of embezzling more than $35 million.Magomedov denied the charges at a pre-trial hearing…

Russia plans to sharply increase fuel exports and carve out a larger share of the European market following an extensive $55 billion modernisation of its refineries, companies' plans and analysts' reports show. Russia embarked on a modernisation of its biggest refineries in 2011 following a fuel shortage crisis. It also changed its tax system to favour production of cleaner and higher-quality fuel. The modernisation, which has not been completed yet, led to a surge in output of light products and exports, which has hurt European refineries' margins.

Russian oil exports from the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk were suspended on Sunday due to storm, oil pipeline monopoly Transneft said on Monday.   It also said that loadings from the Pacific outlet of Kozmino resumed on Sunday after storm, which did not affect the loading schedule.   Other ports are working according to their plans, Transneft said. (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Polina Devitt)

Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft said it had resumed oil loadings from the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk on Friday morning after a storm. Transneft also said that it expected to export 30.6 million tonnes of oil from Novorossiisk, 50.6 million tonnes from Primorsk, 30 million tonnes from Ust-Luga and 31.7 million tonnes from Kozmino this year.   Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin

Russia plans to fully halt exports of oil products from other than Russian ports on the Baltic Sea by 2018, the head of oil pipeline monopoly Nikolai Tokarev told President Vladimir Putin on Monday.   Russia will increase the shipments via its own ports instead, Tokarev said, according to a transcript of the meeting published on the Kremlin website.   Russia has been gradually cutting oil and oil products exports via foreign ports on the Baltic Sea, such as Latvia's Ventspils as it has built its own shipments facilities in the ports of Primorsk and Ust-Luga. (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Lidia Kelly)

Russia's oil pipeline monopoly Transneft has the capacity to reroute oil from Russia and the Caspian Sea to other destinations if Turkey shuts the Bosphorus or Dardanelles straits, RIA News agency cites Transneft chief as saying. Turkish maritime authorities on Saturday shut the Bosphorus Strait to tankers for several hours following what the government said was an attempted coup. The strait, which links the Black Sea and Sea of Marmara and is important for oil shipping, was reopened the same day. Nikolai Tokarev, the head of Transneft, said the company has enough spare capacity in its westbound pipeline system to reroute oil in the event of any further closures of the straits.

Russian state oil pipeline monopoly Transneft plans to resume oil loadings from the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk at midday on Friday following a storm, the company said on Friday. Russia's other ports operated by Transneft are working as usual, it added. Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin

Russia has suspended oil exports from the Pacific port of Kozmino on Sunday due to approaching typhoon, Interfax news agency cited a spokesman for oil pipeline monopoly Transneft as saying on Monday. It is expected that the wind will weaken by Monday evening and loadings could resume. A port official declined to comment. In June, Kozmino handled 2.4 million tonnes of oil. Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin

Russia resumed oil products shipments to Primorsk after a halt following "criminal tapping" of pipeline, a subsidiary of Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft said. "It has not affected and will not affect exports schedule," it added. Russia stopped oil products shipments to the Baltic Sea port of Primorsk on Tuesday due to "criminal tapping" of the pipeline. (Reporting by Gleb Gorodyankin; writing by Katya Golubkova; Editing by Lidia Kelly)

Surgut to transport diesel by rail from its Kirishi refinery; Main diesel terminal in Primorsk reaches full capacity. Surgutneftegas will start exporting diesel from the Baltic port of Ust Luga next month after extensive modernising upgrades to Russian refineries have created a surplus of higher grade fuels, traders said. Russian refiners are struggling to find new ports to cope, with the Baltic's Primorsk already at full capacity. Surgut, Russia's third-largest oil producer, plans to transport diesel by rail from its 420,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) Kirishi refinery in northwest Russia to Ust Luga. From there it will be exported from the Sibur-Portenergo terminal owned by Sibur, Russia's top petrochemical company, the trading sources said.

Russia's oil pipeline monopoly Transneft said it was worried Ukraine may take control of its oil product pipeline to Hungary. A row over ownership of the pipeline has flared amid the deepest East-West rift since the end of the Cold War, over Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula last month. Transneft said in a statement on its website Ukraine's courts have been considering a claim by the general prosecutor's office to transfer control over the pipeline, which shipped some 1.7 million tonnes (over 30,000 barrels per day) of oil products last year, to the state.

Reuters- Russia's oil pipeline monopoly Transneft said on Thursday it plans to nearly triple exports of ultra low sulphur diesel (ULSD) from the Baltic Sea port of Primorsk after 2016 when domestic companies are expected to boost production. As there will be not enough pipeline capacity to export the production then, Transneft said it will adjust one of the crude oil links leading to Primorsk to a pipeline able to ship ULSD. Transneft would start works to ship ULSD from the Kirishi refinery, owned by Surgutneftegas, to Primorsk later this spring and the pipeline would be ready to ship the fuel next autumn or winter, the company said in emailed remarks.

Reuters - Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR agreed with Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft on transportation tariff at $16 per metric ton, slightly up from a previous $15.67, to be shipped via Russia in 2014, SOCAR's official said. Adnan Ahmadzada, SOCAR's marketing and operations department head, told Reuters in an interview the tariff was fixed in Russian roubles and might change slightly depending on exchange rate fluctuations throughout the year. He said SOCAR was ready to ship 1.0-1.5 million metric tons of oil via Russia this year, reversing plans to halt exports in mid-February. "We also agreed that we would have an opportunity to ship additional transit volumes of oil from third parties," Ahmadzada said.