The East is a long business - Newspaper Kommersant No. 53 (7498) of 03/29/2023

The East is a long business - Newspaper Kommersant No. 53 (7498) of 03/29/2023



As it became known to Kommersant, the oil industry is trying to increase the priority of fuel supplies for Russian consumers to the east due to the increasing denials of Russian Railways in transportation. Gazprom Neft, whose Omsk refinery is facing this problem, has asked the government to move oil products to the fourth priority group. The company complains that "systematic difficulties" in the organization of transportation have already led to a disruption in the supply of fuel to consumers.

The oil industry proposes to adjust the temporary rules for determining the order of cargo transportation by rail when delivering fuel to consumers in the eastern regions of the Russian Federation. The head of Gazprom Neft, Alexander Dyukov, in a letter dated March 7 to First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov (Kommersant has a copy) proposes to increase the priority of transporting oil products in this direction, assigning them the fourth stage (now fuel is included in the fifth), where includes subsidized goods.

At the Eastern range of Russian Railways, a certain order of cargo has been introduced - military cargo, cargo for emergency response and cargo on behalf of the president go first, export coal not covered by presidential instructions, and other cargo last.

According to Kommersant, Mr. Belousov instructed the Ministry of Transport, Russian Railways and the Ministry of Energy to consider the appeal by April 10. The secretariat of Andrey Belousov forwarded the question to Kommersant JSC Russian Railways, where no comments were given. Gazprom Neft and the Ministry of Energy also declined to comment.

The fact that a number of refineries of the largest oil companies have been facing difficulties since the end of last year in coordinating applications with Russian Railways for the transportation of petroleum products in an easterly direction, “Kommersant” reported on January 30. The reason is the high load on the route, which is why Russian Railways is forced to reject applications for oil products, giving preference to cargoes that have higher priority according to temporary rules.

According to Kommersant's information, the industry has already informed the government, Russian Railways and the Ministry of Energy about this problem. So, for example, at the end of last year, Tatneft, in its appeal to the Ministry of Energy and SPIMTSB, indicated that 181 wagons (10.8 thousand tons) were waiting for clearance from Russian Railways in the eastern direction, and also reported on overdue exchange transactions in the amount of at 26.4 thousand tons. The company also asked to eliminate the risks of shutting down its TANECO refinery.

In his March address to the government, the head of Gazprom Neft says that the company is “faced with systematic difficulties” when transporting products from the Omsk Oil Refinery to the east by rail, which has already led to “forced changes in Gazprom Neft’s production and marketing programs and short supply of fuel to eastern regions of the country regarding consumer applications”.

According to Alexander Dyukov, according to the results of the second half of 2022 and January 2023, non-fulfillment of obligations for the supply of fuel to consumers in the Russian Federation amounted to about 150 thousand tons, a decrease in the volume of oil refining at the Omsk refinery and a decrease in the presentation of goods for transportation by rail amounted to about 120 thousand tons. tons. At the same time, Gazprom Neft predicts that the supply of oil products to the east in 2023 will grow by 30%, to 4 million tons.

Mr. Dyukov publicly outlined the problem with the export of oil products to the east on March 28. “At the moment, probably, not only our company has faced certain problems with the export of goods that are intended for domestic consumers, including as part of the northern delivery,” said the head of Gazprom Neft, calling for intensified work with the Ministry of Transport and Russian Railways .

The transfer to the fourth priority (cargoes for which subsidies are provided) will ensure the priority of export shipments of oil products over most cargoes that require high speed and reliability, including food products, says Mikhail Burmistrov, head of Infoline-Analytics.

He notes that formally, the transportation of petroleum products to the domestic market in the Far East from 2022, as well as to the Irkutsk Region and the Krasnoyarsk Territory from April 1, 2023, is subsidized.

Juggling priorities will not solve the issue of bandwidth limitations, says Kommersant's interlocutor in the oil industry, explaining the difficult situation on the network with innovations by Russian Railways in the field of interaction with shippers and the carrier's lack of responsibility for failures to accept cargo for transportation.

Dmitry Kozlov



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