Russia's Transneft resumes acceptance of oil trains at Gruzovaya station for export via Kozmino
MOSCOW. Dec 24 (Interfax) - Transneft-Far East has resumed acceptance of trains carrying oil at the Gruzovaya railway station.
The first train loaded with oil from PJSC Gazprom arrived at the Gruzovaya railway station on December 23 for draining and subsequent shipment for export via the port of Kozmino, the company said.
PJSC Transneft has thus organized multimodal oil transportation for export via railways and pipelines for cargo shippers that are currently not connected to trunk oil pipelines.
Supplies are expected to become regular and will make it possible to increase shipments of Russian export-grade ESPO to the Asia-Pacific region via the port of Kozmino, the company said.
The Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline was built to transport oil to the markets of the Asia-Pacific region. The project was implemented in several stages. Initially, oil was delivered to the port of Kozmino via a combined route - first through the pipeline and then by rail. After the ESPO pipeline was completed, all crude oil began to be transported to the port exclusively through the pipeline.
As reported, to further increase oil shipments in 2022, Transneft was tasked with restoring the operation of rail unloading racks which had been mothballed since 2016. These include two rail unloading racks with four tracks, allowing for the simultaneous unloading of 144 tank cars.
Previously, to boost deliveries to Kozmino, Transneft-Far East LLC employees replaced the rotors of the main pumping units at ESPO-2 stations with more efficient ones, installed systems for introducing anti-turbulent additives and carried out work to optimize pumping modes and improve energy efficiency. The original design capacity of the second and third technological sections of ESPO-2 was 36 million tonnes per year; it has now increased to 48 million tonnes and 55 million tonnes, respectively.
A total of 42.6 million tonnes of oil were handled via the port of Kozmino in 2023. An increase to 46 million tonnes is planned for 2024.
