Millionth Tonne of YUKOS Oil Passes through Murmansk Port

The Moskva oil tanker has taken the millionth tonne of oil on board since the large-scale shipping operations began in Murmansk in October 2002 with the aim of creating a new export route for Russian oil.

As a Rosbalt correspondent was informed by the press office of the Murmansk Shipping Company, the millionth tonne of exported oil was a significant achievement for the Murmansk Shipping Company and YUKOS in their oil export partnership.

Experts at the shipping company say that oil export on the Kola peninsula is now gathering pace. Whereas only 600 thousand tonnes of oil were exported via Murmansk in the second half of 2002, more than 400 thousand tonnes were exported in just the first two months of 2003. There are plans to export 3 million tonnes of oil every year.

Many at the shipping company believe that the new export route will become even more important as a result of the new limitations on oil supertankers working in the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea and also as a result of the overloaded pipeline systems and railway transport. As they emphasised at the company 'today we can declare that the Murmansk Shipping Company together with it partners have managed to coordinate the large-scale transportation project as laid down by the Russian government and the regional authorities.'

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