Natalia Chumakova News

Global fuel suppliers are turning to longer and costlier routes that produce more carbon emissions to move their diesel and other products as Western restrictions on Russian cargoes have reshuffled global energy shipping patterns.As a result of the European Union ban on Russian fuel that started on Feb. 5, tankers carrying clean oil products such as gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and naphtha are traveling between 16 and 18 days to bring Russian supplies to Brazil or U.S. cargoes to Europe…

Russia’s first ship designed to run on liquefied natural gas (LNG) and fuel other vessels with LNG has completed its sea trials, energy firm Gazprom Neft reported on Friday.The Dmitry Mendeleev is expected to enter Gazprom Neft’s fleet in the second half of this year, the company said.“The next stage will be the testing of systems for loading, storing and discharging of LNG,” it said.The Dmitry Mendeleev is an Arc4 ice-class vessel which will be able to transport up to 5,800 cubic meters of LNG. It will operate in ports on the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic Sea, including St.

Novatek, Russia's largest producer of liquefied natural gas (LNG), plans to use LNG-fueled bunkering vessels at is hubs to comply with stricter environmental regulations, the company said on Monday.Novatek is building LNG transhipment hubs in Murmansk, in North Western Russia, as well as in the Pacific peninsula of Kamchatka.Bunkering vessels are usually fueled by fuel oil-based blends.

Rare cargoes of diesel from China and South Korea have started to arrive in Russia due to a quirk in Russia's tax system which is making fuel shipments from abroad more profitable, data from traders and Refinitiv Eikon showed on Thursday.Because of a local tax scheme, Russian oil firms are due to make higher payments to the government despite a slump in oil prices due to excess supplies and the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.That means the companies have little incentive to cut domestic retail prices for gasoline and diesel.But with prices lower on the global market…

Yamal LNG, controlled by Russia's largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) producer Novatek, is resuming ship-to-ship transfers in Norway, Novatek said on Monday, after plans to shift the operations to Russia fell through due to coronavirus.Novatek suspended transfers in Norway in June last year due to what it termed "pressure from the West".According to Refinitiv Eikon data, the Arc7 tanker Vladimir Vize is due to arrive at the Norwegian Arctic port of Honningsvag on April 1, carrying a cargo from Yamal LNG.The data also showed that an empty Arc4 tanker…

A Russian gas tanker that is used to secure energy supplies in the west Russian enclave of Kaliningrad has arrived back in the region after being leased out to transport U.S.-produced LNG to Europe, Refinitiv Eikon data showed on Tuesday.Two energy sources told Reuters in November that energy trader Gunvor had leased the Marshal Vasilevskiy tanker from Russian state-controlled gas company Gazprom for loading an LNG cargo in the United States.That surprised the LNG shipping market because U.S. seaborne LNG is seen as a threat to Gazprom's dominance of Europe's gas market and Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the United States…

A gas tanker once hailed by President Vladimir Putin as a bulwark of Russian energy security is heading for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in the United States, ship tracking data from Refinitiv's Eikon showed on Friday.The collection of an LNG cargo from the United States by a Russian tanker would be potentially awkward for Putin and Kremlin-controlled gas company Gazprom, which leased out the vessel to Austrian company OMV in August until November.Two industry sources told Reuters that energy trader Gunvor has subsequently hired the tanker for loading of an LNG cargo in the United States.OMV ended the charter of the Marshal Vasilevskiy after unloading a cargo at Netherlands' Gate port this week…

Top Russian oil producer Rosneft has put up marine fuel cargos for sale with the euro as the default currency, a tender document showed on Monday, in line with its plan to sell oil products in the single currency instead of the U.S. dollar.Rosneft said it had tendered to sell up to 70,000 tonnes of low-viscosity marine fuel with sulphur content of up to 1% from its oil refineries with delivery between Sept. 1 and Oct. 31 on a freight-on-board (FOB) Black Sea basis or FOB St Petersburg…

Top Russian oil producer Rosneft has put up marine fuel cargos for sale with the euro as the default currency, a tender document showed on Monday, in line with its plan to sell oil products in the single currency instead of the U.S. dollar.Rosneft said it had tendered to sell up to 70,000 tonnes of low-viscosity marine fuel with sulphur content of up to 1% from its oil refineries with delivery between Sept. 1 and Oct. 31 on a freight-on-board (FOB) Black Sea basis or FOB St Petersburg, or Carriage Paid To (CPT) any port/Russian border.The decision to switch to the euro as its settlement currency is likely to be seen as an attempt to offset any negative impact of U.S.

Some Russian ships have stopped transporting cargo to Ukraine, deeming it risky after a Russian tanker was detained in a Ukrainian port as Kiev made good on sanctions against Moscow, two sources at shipowners said.It is the latest fallout from Russia's annexation of the Crimea peninsula in 2014 and the emergence of a pro-Moscow insurgency in eastern Ukraine.The Mekhanik Pogodin oil tanker, under the Russian flag, has been moored in the port of Kherson since Aug. 10, Reuters ship tracking data shows.A spokeswoman for a regional unit of the Ukrainian state security service (SBU) said the tanker had been detained in the port and prevented from offloading because its owner is on a list of sanctions imposed by Kiev."We are just following the law…

Shipments of oil products from a Russian Black Sea outlet have been disrupted since early February due to a row over the port's control, four industry sources told Reuters on Wednesday. Three sources said oil products shipments from the IPP terminal at the port of Novorossiisk have been delayed over a managerial conflict. The port did not reply to a written request for comment. According to the sources, between 1,000 and 2,500 rail cars with oil products are stuck near the port waiting to be loaded on to tankers. Trading sources also said that loading operations of two tankers - Andromeda, chartered by Litasco, and Trafigura's Atlantas II - have been cancelled. "Ships have been waiting in the harbour of Novorossiisk," a trader said.

Oil producer Lukoil aims to maintain output in Russia at this year's level of 86-87 million tonnes and to increase it by 1.5-2 million tonnes in 2017, its chief executive, Vagit Alekperov, said on Tuesday. Russia intends to provide further discounts on its Urals crude blend in order to defend its market share in Europe as other grades have been increasingly flowing into the region, a government source said on Nov. 21. "Price discounts depend on our relations with partners. We proceed from the premise of receiving a maximum price for our product," Alekperov told reporters, commenting on the source-based report.   Reporting by Natalia Chumakova

Russian Urals crude differentials continued to slide in the Baltic on Thursday amid a flurry of activity with softer refining margins, pushed down by higher oil prices, still keeping buyers at bay. In the Platts window, Statoil bought a 100,000-tonne cargo from Glencore for loadings on Oct. 18-22 in the Baltic at dated Brent minus $2 a barrel, some 20 cents weaker than on Wednesday, traders said. Litasco, Total and Vitol have found no buyers with offers of minus $1.80, $1.75 and $1.85 to dated Brent correspondingly. In the south, Litasco increased its bids for 80,000 and 140,000 cargoes to minus 95 cents and minus $1.20 to dated Brent respectively, without success. The were no deals with both Azeri and CPC Blend in the Platts window.

Russia is seen increasing its exports of Urals crude oil from its Baltic ports in August, while shipments from Novorossiisk on the Black Sea are expected to decline, a preliminary loading schedule showed on Friday. On the Baltic, Urals exports from Primorsk are expected to rise to 3.3 million tonnes from 2.9 million tonnes this month, while the neighbouring port of Ust-Luga is seen handling 2 million tonnes of Urals next month, up from 1.9 million tonnes in July. Exports from the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk are seen at 2.09 million tonnes in August, down from 2.18 million in July.   (Reporting by Natalia Chumakova)

Russia's top oil producer Rosneft has issued tenders to sell 876,000 tonnes of vacuum gasoil (VGO) out of the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea between July and December, traders said on Tuesday. One tender calls for bids to buy up to 540,000 tonnes of VGO from Rosneft's Ryazan and Novokuybishevsk refineries on a free-on-board (FOB) basis from the Baltic Sea. A second tender invites bids for up to 336,000 tonnes of VGO from the Achinsk refinery on FOB basis Black Sea and Baltic Sea. Both tenders are for delivery between July and December 2014. The tenders close on May 26 at 2000 Moscow time.

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.