A trial batch of oil was delivered to the port of Kozmino by rail

MOSCOW, 4 Oct — PRIME. There are not enough pipeline capacities to supply oil to the East, in connection with which the railway capacities used before the ESPO-2 pipeline are being re-launched, in particular, a trial batch of oil was delivered by rail to the port of Kozmino on October 3, the Kommersant newspaper writes, citing sources .

A consignment of oil with a volume of 4.4 thousand tons, owned by Gazprom Neft, was sent by the Transneft structure to Transnefteprodukt on September 25, the newspaper writes.

According to Argus, citing railway forwarders, the raw materials left the Zuy station in the Irkutsk region, the newspaper writes. Sources of the publication familiar with the situation explain that such a supply scheme was agreed with Transneft and oil was supplied from its pipeline system. The shipment reached the sea terminal on October 3, they note.

Railway routes running through the Irkutsk stations Zui and Meget, as well as from Skovorodino towards China or the port of Kozmino, were actively used by oil companies until 2015, when the second stage of the Eastern Siberia – Pacific Ocean (ESPO-2) oil pipeline was launched, extending the pipe from Skovorodino to the Kozmino terminal in Nakhodka, thereby connecting the fields of Eastern Siberia with the markets of the Asia-Pacific region. Transporting oil through a pipe is much cheaper than by rail, so since 2016, interest in transporting oil in tanks to the east has faded.

But over the past two months, according to the newspaper’s sources on the market, given the EU’s intention to stop the purchase of Russian oil from December 5, part of the capacity has returned to work, in particular, the Freight station serving the port of Kozmino. This is due to the fact that pipeline capacity is not enough, the newspaper writes.

In June, Transneft equipped two oil pumping stations (OPS) in the Far East with installations for the introduction of an anti-turbulent additive to increase oil transportation through the ESPO-2 pipeline. According to Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, in this regard, the government expects an increase in oil supplies via the ESPO in 2022 by about 7 million tons. As early as September, Nikolai Tokarev, President of Transneft, announced that due to the growth in supplies to Asia, the ESPO system was operating at maximum capacity.