-->ein Text zur russischen Ã-lförderung und dessen Transport bzw. den Hindernissen des Transports....


<font size="4">Russian exports flat in February </font>

Moscow |Reuters | 04-03-2003

Russian oil exports via the state pipeline monopoly Transneft were flat in February
2003 at 3.1 million barrels per day, while output hit another post-Soviet high, industry
sources said yesterday.

Russian oil production, booming for the fifth straight year, rose to 8.1 million bpd
from 8.07 million bpd in January, but the sources said oil firms were forced to curb
the growth in February as their exports were hit by severe storms on the Black Sea
and the domestic market was over-supplied.

"This was another very bad month for exports. Oil firms such as Yukos and Bashneft
are shutting their wells down," said a source close to the Energy Ministry.

"Transneft tells oil firms it cannot handle more than eight million bpd during the
winter season and asks oil firms to curb the growth until better weather," another
source said.

Transneft carries more than three-quarters of Russia's total oil exports, the second
largest in the world after Saudi Arabia.

February export levels of 3.10 million bpd include transit volumes mainly from
Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, which were flat compared with January at 389,000 bpd.

Russian-only crude exports via Transneft stood at 2.71 million bpd, unchanged from
January.

Traders estimate volumes leaving the country by rail and small ports and thus
bypassing Transneft at 600,000 bpd and put real volumes of crude oil exported from
and via Russia by all means and routes at around four million bpd.

Traders said oil firms were likely to face the same export difficulties until April
because March is normally a stormy month on the Black Sea.

"It seems that people have lost hope that Transneft will reopen a pipeline to the
Latvian port of Ventspils. So we have to wait for improvement on the Black Sea and
the start of river navigation," said a Western trader.

Transneft slashed oil shipments to Ventspils to zero in January from around 350,000
bpd a year earlier, saying oil firms preferred other routes to reach world markets.

Market players say the move is designed to put pressure on the port's owners to sell
Transneft a stake in the terminal, once the biggest outlet for Russia's crude on its
way to northern Europe, at a bargain basement price.


bei den Transportschwierigkeiten bleibt die Frage wie sie die USA mit mehr Ã-l beliefern wollen.

Gruss
Cosa