January 29, 2017, 11:16 pm / Business Exclusively by subscription

Bashneft wants to change the methodology for calculating losses in the Transneft pipe

Previously, such a claim was filed against the pipeline monopoly by the parent company of Bashneft, Rosneft. Vitaly Petlevoy Galina Starinskaya Rosneft and Bashneft have disagreements with Transneft over the methodology for calculating technological losses during oil transportation, this is what prevented the companies from signing an agreement, says a participant in the conflict / M. Stulov / Vedomosti

filed On January 26 , Bashneft a lawsuit against Transneft , according to data from the Moscow Arbitration Court. The amount of the claim is not indicated in the case file; it is not known what Bashneft is challenging. The court representative did not answer Vedomosti's questions. A representative of Rosneft (owns 60.16% of Bashneft’s votes) declined to comment.

Transneft did not receive a claim from Bashneft, says a representative of the monopoly. He suggests: the claim is similar to the one filed by Rosneft , and is related to claims regarding the conclusion of the contract for 2017. This is so, confirms a Vedomosti source close to one of the parties to the conflict: the claim was filed as part of the proceedings on transportation conditions.

Rosneft and Transneft were unable to sign an agreement on oil pumping for 2017, according to court materials. “Rosneft had its own agreement, and Bashneft had its own; the companies also failed to agree on it,” says one of the participants in the proceedings. Rosneft filed a lawsuit against Transneft on January 24. Even before filing the lawsuit, in December 2016, Rosneft demanded that the monopoly be obliged to pump oil. If transportation were to stop, this would inevitably lead to a halt in the development of most fields within 72 hours, Rosneft’s position was stated in the court materials. The court introduced interim measures.

No interim measures have been taken against Bashneft’s claim, notes a Transneft representative. “The monopoly did not stop transporting hydrocarbons to Bashneft, although, as in the case of Rosneft, an agreement for 2017 was not concluded. “Transneft would not have stopped the pumping of Rosneft’s oil, and interim measures were unnecessary and there were no grounds for taking them,” added the Transneft representative.

Pipe losses

Nikolay Tokarev, President of Transneft
Transneft, together with the Ministry of Energy, has achieved that oil losses in the pipeline have been reduced. If in 2010 losses were 0.45%, today they are 0.14% of the total transportation volume. A group has been created and is working at the Ministry of Energy, which includes representatives of oil companies, including Rosneft. This group is our regulator in terms of calculating technological losses. The signature of a Rosneft representative is also on the documents [concerning losses].” Vedomosti, January 2017

Rosneft is Transneft's largest client. In 2015, the monopoly pumped 481.4 million tons of oil and 32.3 million tons of petroleum products. With a production of 205 million tons, Rosneft exported 103.8 million tons of oil through Transneft pipes in 2015, which cost 185.4 billion rubles. Supplies to refineries (including the German Ruhr Oel) amounted to 90 million tons for 73.3 billion rubles, according to Rosneft materials. Bashneft produced 19.9 million tons of oil in 2015, of which 6.7 million tons were exported, 10.5 million tons to its own refineries, and the rest was sold in Russia. In the structure of exports, only 9% of Bashneft’s oil passes outside the Transneft system, as follows from the annual report.

Rosneft and Bashneft have disagreements with Transneft over the methodology for calculating technological losses during oil transportation; this is what prevented the companies from signing an agreement, says a participant in the conflict. Transneft believes that the balances in the system should be determined as follows: the amount of oil entering the system minus technological losses determined according to collections of standards, and Rosneft believes that actual technological losses should be subtracted from the amount of oil entering the system within the limits of the standard approved by the Ministry of Energy , explained earlier the head of the FAS department Dmitry Makhonin. The methodology that Transneft relies on is less beneficial for oil workers, says a service representative.

Oil companies have a chance in court to oblige Transneft to enter into an agreement on their own terms, says Tertychny Agabalyan partner Ivan Tertychny. “In 2011, the government adopted a resolution on non-discriminatory access to the oil transportation system, which states that not conditional, but actual oil losses during transportation should be calculated, which cannot exceed the maximum established by the Ministry of Energy,” the lawyer recalls. And if Rosneft and Bashneft prove in court the correctness of their methodology for calculating actual losses during pumping, then the court may oblige Transneft to enter into an agreement on their terms, Tertychny believes.