Kozmino port welcomes three giant tankers for oil loading in New Year

10/1 Tass 72a

VLADIVOSTOK, January 10 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia's newest Kozmino seaport
located in Nakhodka Harbour welcomed three giant tankers for oil loading
in the period of the New Year and Christmas holidays.
On January 5, the Tripoli-registered Libya ocean tanker under the flag
of Liberia opened the oil transhipment season, the Kozmino port's official
said.
A Maltese tanker, the Ashada, arrived in the port on January 6. On
Saturday, Liberia's Pacific Energy tanker came for the oil loading in the
port, the official said.
Each of the above-mentioned tankers can take aboard 100,000 tonnes of
oil, which is delivered to the Kozmino seaport from Eastern Siberia.
The special oil port Kozmino was commissioned on December 28. It is
the final point of the East Siberia - Pacific Ocean (ESPO) petroleum
project's first stage.
In 2010, fifteen million tonnes of hydrocarbons will be transhipped
through the seaport.
The first tanker Moskovsky Universitet (Moscow University) of the
Novorossiisk ocean company with 100,000 tonnes of crude was dispatched on
the eve of the New Year, on December 30.
The construction of the special seaport in the Kozmino Bay started in
2008.
A special pier of 430 metres, and two 161- and 170-metres tanker
berths were built in the bay, as well as 17 kilometres of technological
pipelines and about 250 kilometres of cable communications were laid in
the port. Besides, 485 metres of the shoreline were reinforced. There were
constructed a checkpoint and a fire-fighting network, the official said.
Now, a second stage of the seaport will be started in Kozmino soon. It
will be designed for the transhipment of 300,000-tonne tankers. If the
plans are implemented, then the Kozmino freight turnover may reach 50
million tonnes a year, and up to 100 million tonnes in the Nakhodka
Harbour in general.
The East Siberia - Pacific Ocean pipeline was created for the export
of Russia's crude oil to the Asia-Pacific markets (Japan, China, Korea).
Transneft is the builder and operator of the pipeline network.
According to the project, an annual transportation of hydrocarbons
through the ESPO-1 network will amount to 30 million tonnes. A half of
that amount will be transported through the constructed underground
stretch to China, and another half will be delivered by the TransSiberia
Railway to the Kozmino oil port.
The ESPO-1 pipeline runs via the territories of the Irkutsk region,
Yakutia, and the Amur region. The 2,694-kilometre linear part of the oil
pipeline links Taishet and Skovorodino in the Amur region.
The ESPO-1 will operate up to commissioning the second stage of the
project.
The second stage of the ESPO pipeline will run through the Amur
region, the Jewish Autonomous Region, Khabarovsk and Primorsky territories.
With the commissioning of the second stage of the ESPO the capacity of
the system will grow to 80 million tonnes annually.
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