Russia plans U.S. oil link
Four firms team to build terminal at Arctic port to provide more oil to U.S. market.
November 27, 2002: 8:11 AM EST
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's top oil firms teamed up in a multi-billion dollar deal on Wednesday to build a giant
export terminal in Russia's only ice-free Arctic port, a move that should help the U.S. cut its dependency on the Middle
East.
The planned deal comes as Russia seeks new markets outside Europe while the U.S., the world's biggest oil consumer, wants to
diversify its sources of oil away from more traditional but politically turbulent suppliers.
"Russian firms could supply up to 13 percent of the United States' total crude oil imports by 2010,'' the four firms said in a
statement.
The memorandum of understanding was signed by executives from Lukoil, Yukoa, Tyumen Oil Co. and Sibneft, which together
account more than half of Russia's eight million barrel per day output.
They agreed to build a one million barrels-per-day terminal in Murmansk on the Barents Sea, the only port Russia has in the Arctic
thast does not freeze over in winter, and a 935-mile link between Murmansk and the country's existing pipeline network.
They should be completed by 2007.
Lukoil first floated the idea to build a terminal in Murmansk, a major naval base since Soviet days, in May.
Russia, the world's second-largest oil exporter, currently ships up to four million barrels per day of crude oil to world markets. Its
output is booming for the fourth straight year and Moscow needs new export routes as its domestic consumption remains flat.
Russian oil firms, which traditionally ship their crude to Europe, say they are ready to supply more crude to the United States but
need more deep water ports.
The United States has said Russia's booming output could help cushion oil markets against volatile supplies from OPEC producers
in the Middle East.
The proposed new port comes amid increasingly friendly relations between Moscow and Washington, particularly since last year's
Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. |
