Russian oil transport monopoly to redirect oil export to domestic Baltic ports by 2018

Russian oil pipeline company Transneft is planning to stop Russia's oil exports via foreign Baltic ports by 2018 and redirect the routes to Russian ports, the Russian presidential website reported Monday evening.

"Last year, around nine million tons (of oil) were shipped through the (foreign) Baltic ports, while this year the figure was five million tons. By 2018 we will reduce this flow to zero and will direct it to our ports instead, as we have surplus capacity," said Chairman and President of Transneft Nikolai Tokarev at the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

According to Tokarev, the company will redirect oil freight flows from the Baltic ports of Ventspils and Riga in Latvia to Russia's own Baltic ports of Ust-Luga and Primorsk, along with the construction of oil transport routes.

Transneft is a Russian state-owned transport monopoly and the largest oil pipeline company in the world. The company is operating over 70 thousand km of trunk pipelines, and transports about 90 percent of oil produced in Russia to various destinations. Endi