The eastern direction of Russian Railways cannot even cope with the agreed volumes of transportation of petroleum products and cannot increase them due to the situation in the terminals. In the first week of February 2023 alone, the ports of the Far East rejected 14% of submitted applications, the company said. Earlier, “Kommersant” wrote that oil companies complain regarding the mass refusals of Russian Railways in permits for the transportation of petroleum products to the east.
“Russian Railways accepts cargo taking into account the volume of unloading in ports, and today they do not allow increasing transportation. <...> The terminals were not ready to transship even the agreed volumes of oil products. Because of this, the number of wagons with oil products on the public infrastructure now exceeds the standards by 2.5 times,” the source said. Russian Railways.
The company called on port workers to join the information systems of Russian Railways (DILS, SKPP) in order to participate in planning and managing the supply of loaded car flows. So far, only 23% of port terminals are connected to them.
To increase traffic volumes, Russian Railways proposed to gradually replace obsolete tank cars with improved rolling stock. The company is also working on technologies for transporting petroleum products in six- and eight-axle tanks.
At the end of 2022, the loading of oil and oil products on the Russian Railways network amounted to almost 216 million tons, which is 0.7% less than a year earlier. 129 million tons (+2.3%) were transported in domestic Russian traffic, exports decreased by 4.9%, according to Russian Railways, primarily due to the cessation of transportation to Ukraine.
In 2022, the loading of bulk oil cargoes at the Eastern Landfill amounted to 29.3 million tons, which is 4.6% more than in 2021. Subsidizing the transportation of petroleum products to the Far Eastern Federal District contributed to the growth of deliveries to the East in domestic traffic – up to 20 million tons (+10%).
A number of large oil refineries faced mass refusals for oil transportation, including Omsk (Gazprom Neft), Kirishsky (Surgutneftegaz), Orsk (Forteinvest), TANECO (Tatneft), as well as Bashneft refineries (include at Rosneft). Kommersant’s sources said that “the issue has been repeatedly raised at the headquarters of the Ministry of Energy and the FAS Exchange Committee, but there is no solution.”
Read more regarding the situation in the material “Kommersant” “Whom to send for oil.”
