Russian diesel will flow freely

14 August 2008

All those people in Western Europe who fill up on diesel need have no fears about shortages on the forecourts for the time being. Because Russia plans to substantially increase its exports of diesel oil via the port of Primorsk. Rotterdam is the main transit port for crude oil and products from Primorsk, and will be further expanding the relevant handling and storage capacity. Western Europe is dependent on imports to meet the high/increasing demand for diesel oil.

In July, after a year’s delay, a special pipeline for high-grade diesel (Euro 5) went into operation. Via this so-called "Project North", 220,000 tonnes per month will be piped from the Yaroslavl refinery to Primorsk, until September. In the autumn, two other refineries will be connected up and capacity will reach 460,000 tonnes. Primorsk is already Russia’s main export port for crude oil and, in the coming years, will gradually increase the export capacity of low-sulphur diesel to 8.7 million tonnes a year (725,000 tonnes/month). The state-owned pipeline company Transnefteproduct wants to increase the capacity of the diesel pipeline to an annual 24 million tonnes in the coming years, by connecting up more and more refineries.

Primorsk-Rotterdam
Primorsk is developing into the main oil port. Vessels with a draught of up to 17.5 metres/ 150,000 dwt can be handled there. The restricting factor for shipping in the Baltic is the passage between the island of Rügen and Denmark. This varies considerably in depth, between 11 and 30 metres. Vessels have to make a turn of approximately 90 degrees just before the strait and then have to pass each other with only 500 to 100 metres separating them, depending on the size of the vessels. This is very little for a ship and accidents are not uncommon, therefore, among the 65,000 or so vessels which sail through the strait every year. Tanker shipping is accounting for an increasing share of this. In 2006, 5100 tanker movements in a westerly direction and 3900 in an easterly direction were counted. Many of these tankers dock in Rotterdam, which has developed into the hub for Russian oil exports, handling 35 million tonnes of crude oil and products in 2006. In 2000, this was still at 4 million tonnes. Some of the products, mainly heavy fuel oil, are transferred in Rotterdam into larger tankers (VLCC), destined for Singapore.

(Sources: Lloyds List 11-08-2008, Deutsche Verkehrs Zeitung 22-04-2008)

Port of Rotterdam Authority