[Goldfisch]

U.S. Not Ready for Large Oil Imports From Russia — Russian Pipeline Boss
Created: 19.10.2004 18:34 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 09:25 MSK, 4 hours 8 minutes ago

At the present time the United States is not ready to buy and import considerable amounts of Russian oil, Simon Vainstok, the president of Russia’s state-owned oil pipeline monopoly Transneft, told a press conference on Tuesday, Oct. 19.

As a result of Transneft’s talks with the U.S. Marathon Oil company, which owns an oil terminal at a sea port in the state of Louisiana, it became apparent that the terminal is currently capable of accepting no more than 15 million tons of oil per year, Vainstok said.

He did not say whether Transneft spoke to any other operators, however. Moreover, in order to export oil to the U.S. Russian oil companies would have to mix Urals oil blend with light Siberial oil, otherwise the U.S. refineries would not be able to process the crude, added the official without elaborating.

Last year U.S. imports from Russia amounted to $4.3 billion, with oil accounting for 40 percent ($1.72 billion) of the total. The volume of oil exports increased along with prices, but still Russian oil exports to the U.S. are at least four times less than those of Nigeria. The embattled Yukos Oil Company was the main Russian supplier of oil to the U.S., but the situation is likely to change.

Quelle: MosNews