The Grade 5 Crude
Russia’s Industry and Energy Ministry may separate from Urals the crude to be supplied via Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline. The government deliberates on elaborating the GOST for Siberian crude and on creating a new brand, the so-called ESPL Blend, hoping it will cost more than Urals. ESPL Blend could appear on the market, Argus Media & Platts analysts speculate, specifying that doing it at the first stage of the ESPO launch will be hardly expedient.
Russia’s government has redropped its effort to register a new crude brand for the blend to be delivered to Asia via the ESPO pipeline. The idea for branding the crude of Eastern Siberia emerged in 2004, during first discussions of ESPO but it was shelved later on. The project was revived, representatives of Industry and Energy Ministry officially confirmed yesterday.
“The analysts concluded that the grade of mixed crude will be much higher than Urals has, so it should be sold at the higher price and generate additional profits,” sources with the ministry explained, pointing out, however, that the discussion is far from nearing the end and no decision has been reached even on the code name for the brand.
The crude could be called ESPL Blend–ESTO Blend to begin with, Argus Media analyst Mikhail Perfilov supposed.
Nowadays, Russia’s crude is sold under four brands, including Urals, Siberian Light, Rebco and Sokol. Urals is the blend of light crude of Western Siberia (Siberian Light) and sour crude of the Urals and Povolzhie. Sokol is produced under Sakhalin 2 project, while Rebco (Russian Export Blend Crude Oil) is the brand used for export deliveries via Primorsk Port. Siberian Light is shipped via Tuapse Port and Sokol leaves Russia via De-Kastri Port of Khabarovsk region. Urals is delivered via Novorossiisk and by Druzhba pipeline.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of July 27, 2007
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