6th October, Unicom MD visited a newly constructed large oil terminal in Kozmino Bay (near Nakhodka, Far East).

The oil terminal being more than 20 meters in depth will be capable of handling tankers of up to 300,000 tonnes in deadweight. There are 7 shore reservoirs with the capacity of 50,000 cubic metres each and two smaller shore tanks of 10,000 cubic meters capacity each. Transneft, Russia’s state-owned oil pipeline will operate the terminal. It will be the end point of East-Siberia –  Pacific Ocean oil pipeline.

At the initial phase oil will be delivered to the terminal by railway for further shipment to Asia Pacific Region states including Japan, up to 15 million tonnes per year. The oil will be supplied by Surgutneftegaz and TNK-BP.

Construction of the 2,100 km (1,300 m) long second stage from Skovorodino to the Pacific Ocean would start after launch of the first stage in November this year. It could be commissioned between 2015-2017. The pipeline will be supplied from the oil fields of Tomsk Oblast and the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area in Western Siberia along the existing Omsk-Irkutsk pipeline that will join the new project in Taishet, as well as oil provinces of Eastern Siberia. At the second phase the terminal will be capable of pumping 50 million tonnes.

Transneft) has already shipped a first trainload of Eastern Siberian oil toward Kozmino. 300,000 tonnes of crude will be lifted from the new terminal till the year end.

Another state company Rosneft is also planning to build in Nakhodka a petrochemical plant that will annually process 20 million tonnes of oil, and the construction of a helium producing plant has already been launched this year. New Rosneft facility will be connected with the Eastern
Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) oil pipeline system.

Obviously in second decade of this century Sovcomflot Group will see more good opportunities for its crude oil and product fleet in the Pacific region.