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Transneft Won't Let Kazakh Oil into Lithuania
Semen Vainshtok, president of Transneft, the state-owned monopoly oil pipeline operator, announced yesterday that the company has withdrawn its signature from documents on the technical confirming the possibility of transporting Kazakh oil to Lithuania signed between the Russian company and the Kazakh Kaztransoil company, a subsidiary of Kazmunaigaz. That move seriously damages the Kazakh Kazmunaigaz company's chances of buying the Lithuanian Mazeikiu nafta company. Vainshtok, speaking in Turkey, said that that step was necessary because of the failure of the Kazakhs to make amendments to the intergovernmental agreement Russian and Kazakhstan that were necessary to begin oil transit. The documents in question simply stated that Transneft would not hinder Kazakhstan's transit of oil to Lithuania, provided the proper amendments were made to agreements, and Kazakhstan planned to increase its transit volume to Lithuania to first 7 million tons, then 12 million tons, per year. At present, Kazakhstan transports 16 million tons of oil through Russian annually. An addition 12 million tons for Mazeikiu nafta would enable the Kazakh company to meet the Lithuanian company's needs in full.
Sources close to the Kazakh company tell Kommersant that the deadline for making the necessary amendments to international agreement had not passed, and the Kazakh company expected the amendments to be made when Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev visited Moscow soon. Those sources suspected that Kazmunaigaz's interest in the Lithuanian Mazeikiu nafta oil company was the cause of the action. The Lithuanian government is planning to buy the 53.7 percent of the company that now belongs to the overseas division of YUKOS oil company and sell its along with most of its own 40.66-percent share in it. TNK-BP is the main contender for that stock. Vainshtok's announcement was a complete surprise for the Kazakh company, which has not been officially notified of that decision. Although some suspects that Transneft is acting on the behalf of some Russian company angling for the Mazeikiu nafta stock, Transneft vice president Sergey Grigoryev told Kommersant that, if the Russian and Kazakh governments reach an agreement on increasing Kazakhstan's oil transit through Russia, Transneft will abide by that decision.
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 18, 2005
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