Uchenna Izundu
International Editor
LONDON, Feb. 15 -- Russia's oil pipeline operator OAO Transneft is committed to implementing its oil projects regardless of any change in Russia's presidency in the forthcoming elections, Transneft Pres. Simon Vainshtock told OGJ at International Petroleum Week in London.
"Russia has prepared all the necessary grounds for there to be a continuity of energy policy that we currently have. The policy will be maintained and will remain the same," Vainshtock said.
One major Transneft project is construction of the 4,000-km Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline to export Russian crude to the Asia-Pacific region. Vainshtock said the first phase of the 30 million tonne/year pipeline is on schedule to be commissioned in 2008. "We've got guarantees for 100% of the volumes to fill the first stage of the pipeline," he said.
Last week Russia, Bulgaria, and Greece signed a preliminary agreement for the 240-km Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline proposal to fast-track the establishment of an international company to manage the project. The pipeline, with an initial capacity of 15 million tonnes/year, will skirt the Black Sea, cross Greece and Bulgaria and help reduce crude oil shipments by tankers through the congested Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits.
Vainshtock added that Transneft will support Gazprom OAO's position not to ratify the Energy Charter Treaty because they are both state energy companies. The international agreement aims to protect foreign energy investments. Russia signed the treaty but refused to ratify it, saying it does not serve Russian interests, because of objections to the Transit Protocol, a related document that facilitates the transit of hydrocarbons. Russia is negotiating with the European Union to reach a resolution on this document before it will progress with ratification.
"We are very democratic in our company and put a stress on principles," Vainshtock said. "We take everybody's opinion into consideration, so whatever decision is reached, we stick with it.... We can't have differences with Gazprom...we all belong to the same country."
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