| Russia opens new export ports Today, two new Russian ports will be put into commercial operation on the Baltic Sea. The Primorsky oil loading terminal was built on the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland - a “window to Europe” for the Baltic Pipeline System (BPS). On the southern coast is the first launch complex of the coal terminal of the Ust-Luga Sea Trade Port. At both terminals, sea vessels are already loaded with Russian raw materials and are ready to go to sea at the sign of President Vladimir Putin, who will be present at the opening ceremony.
The two facilities were built primarily with public money and represent a new government approach to exports. It is expressed in the fact that Russian cargo must be transshipped through Russian ports. This is precisely the statement made recently in St. Petersburg by Transport Minister Sergei Frank.
The Ust-Luga Company, which is the general customer and developer of the port in Luga Bay, estimated the shortage of Russian port facilities in the North-West at 50 million tons of cargo per year. “Because of this, the Baltic countries earn up to $1 billion a year from the transit of Russian cargo,” the company says.
By using the new terminals, exporters will save by reducing transportation costs, since tariffs are planned to be set lower than in the Baltic countries.
It is technically possible to ship up to 1 million tons per year through Ust-Luga. The terminal's design capacity provides for an annual transshipment of 4 million tons. However, implementing these plans is still problematic: the Ministry of Property is opposed to the issue of new shares in the Rosterminalugol company, through the sale of which it intended to attract private investors, in particular the transport company Unitrans. The state is not ready to part with the controlling stake in Rosterminalugol, although it cannot yet allocate funds for its development. In addition, it (represented by the administration of the Leningrad region) owns a blocking stake in the Ust-Luga Company. But the BTS and Primorsky port are 100% state property, and government representatives have repeatedly stated that these facilities will not be privatized.
The capacity of the oil port in Primorsk is 12 million tons of oil per year. And in 2003 they plan to increase it to 18 million tons per year. “Transneft has started designing and is drawing up a financing scheme for the second stage of the BPS with a capacity of 6 million tons,” Transneft representative Yuri Sokolov told the Vremya Novostei newspaper. According to the Governor of the Leningrad Region Valery Serdyukov, this project, within the framework of which it is necessary to build a 245-kilometer Yaroslavl-Kirishi pipeline, a pumping station and an oil storage facility for 400 thousand tons, will cost no less than $380 million. Construction is planned to begin in the second half 2002 and completed by December 2003. That is, the second stage, like the first, must be built in Stakhanov style - in 18 months. And just like the first one, not a penny of private investors’ money will be spent on it - only Transneft’s money.
But while the state has funds for Primorsk, the Ministry of Railways cannot allocate them for Ust-Luga (the reconstruction of the railway line and the construction of a new station requires $26 million). And without these facilities, it will be impossible to export more than 1 million tons of cargo per year from the Luga port. Meanwhile, by 2003, the Ust-Luga Company, using funds from private investors, plans to build the first phase of terminals for mineral fertilizers, oil products, general cargo and timber. All together - for 10 million tons of cargo per year. Victor MATVEEV, St. Petersburg |
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