Would Turkmen oil return to Makhachkala?
April 05, 2018 | 21:41 |2728
The Makhachkala Commercial Sea Port (MCSP), thanks to the efforts of the new head of Dagestan, significantly increases the volumes of oil transshipment, the leading Russian economic news agency Prime reports. The recovery of oil transshipment volumes is connected closely with transit of Caspian oil. However, in order to achieve this goal, the MCSP should have to meet a number of strategic challenges, first of all, to restore confidence of business partners, especially Turkmen ones. Turkmen producers were one of the first who refused to work with the port of Makhachkala and left Dagestan. What is the reason? Companies from Turkmenistan used to export oil via the port of Makhachkala. Hydrocarbons delivered by takers are accumulated in the tanks of Dagnefteproduct then come to Transneft system for further pumping to different destinations. The reluctance of oil traders to export black gold through Makhachkala was caused by the abuse of the Dagnefteproduct, which accepts, stores and supplies oil to the pipeline system of Transneft. Turkmen companies have discovered that after Dagnefteproduct receives the oil, the amount of oil is decreasing in an unexplainable way, and the quality is deteriorating. Experts familiar with the situation in the port of Makhachkala, state that some volume of the oil was stolen, and mazut and water were added to preserve the volume. As per normative documents, the standard losses of oil pumped from tankers to tanks should not exceed 0.2 percent. According to the Turkmen companies, the losses registered when pumping oil to Dagnefteproduct tanks were as high as 0.84 percent in 2014, 0.44 percent in 2015 and 1.43 percent in the first half of 2016. Besides, content of chlorides and water in oil leaving the tanks of Dagnefteproduct used to exceed the norm. Moreover, in May 2016, Dagnefteproduct company refused to feed 5,000 t of Turkmen oil into the Transneft system and is currently trying to force the owner of this volume sign a ‘bottom heel’ act, abandon claims and accept the loss of cargo. In response, the Turkmen companies have refused to work with the port and shifted cargo transit to the port of Baku. Other foreign companies either followed the example of oil producers from Turkmenistan, or considerably reduced their volumes. The situation started to change after the appointment of Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Vladimir Vasilyev to the post of temporarily acting head of Dagestan in last October. Now the issues of safe oil transit and the prevention of theft of black gold are at the center of attention of the new head of the republic. A set of measures to restore order in the port of Makhachkala was adopted. Prime notes that the results of the first quarter are encouraging and allow us to hope that embezzlement in Dagnefteprodukt ceased. At the same time, the leading Russian economic news agency emphasizes that only firm guarantees to prevent theft in the future will return Turkmen oil to Makhachkala.Nury AMANOV
