Oil transshipment at the port of Kozmino increased by 9.4% and amounted to 42.8 million tons in 2023.

January 12 2024

PJSC “Transneft” intends to increase the oil transshipment via the port of Kozmino (Primorsky Territory) up to 50 million tons of oil per year. Mr. Nikolai Tokarev, the company’s president told about this plan in an interview with the corporate publication “Oil Pipeline Transport”.

“We understand that next year 46 million tons of oil will arrive in Kozmino via pipeline, additional volumes will be delivered through the Meget railway station. We have been calculating options for diversifying exports. If we increase the capacity of the ESPO (Eastern Siberia – Pacific Ocean oil pipeline – editor’s note), this will require large financial costs exceeding 1 trillion rubles, and many years for implementation. Therefore, the measures that the company is taking today to commission additional capacities at Kozmino are much less expensive and quickly bring results. 50 million tons per year is not the limit, but it will take time and the implementation of the necessary technical solutions,” said Nikolai Tokarev.

He also confirmed the deadline for the implementation of the investment project to expand the oil pipeline towards the port of Primorsk. “All facilities in the direction of Primorsk will be commissioned in 2024, although it was planned later. The linear part is already half built, and the port infrastructure is being prepared. Therefore, in Primorsk, oil transshipment of 57 million tons is a very realistic figure (this year 44 million tons),” said the president of Transneft. In addition, he recalled plans to increase oil transshipment through the port of Novorossiysk in 2025 to 52 million tons from the current 37 million tons.

At the same time, according to him, the storm factor makes port activities in Novorossiysk very difficult. “We requested storm statistics for the last 15 years. If before 2017 the average storm days were 60-75, then last year there were 111, and this year there were 118. That is, the port is forced to work in fits and starts. Moreover, the port deals not only with oil, but also processes other cargo.

He also lamented the lack of pilots. “We have our own pilotage service, but it needs to be strengthened in order to simultaneously moor several ships at once. So there are a lot of nuances to the production plan that depend not only on the weather.”

As PortNews reported earlier, since the beginning of 2023 “Transneft” has redistributed pipe supplies from the “Druzhba” oil pipeline to Russian oil ports, and therefore transshipment, including transit volumes, via the port of Novorossiysk over the past year increased by 3.1% – to 30 million tons, Primorsk – by 6.5%, to 44.4 million tons, Ust-Luga – by 9%, to 34 million tons, Kozmino – by 9.4%, to 42.8 million tons.

Source: https://portnews.ru/news/358378/