YUKOS ready to sell oil to USA at $19 per barrel

YUKOS is ready to export oil to the USA at a price not lower than $19 per barrel, YUKOS head Mikhail Khodorkovsky told journalists today. He pointed out that the USA was ready to buy 1m barrels of oil per day, even in the event of an Iraqi war.

Moreover, Khodorkovsky stressed that the company was increasing its oil supplies to China by railroad only due to a favorable agreement. In particular, YUKOS has agreed with Sinopec on increasing oil supplies to 1.6m tons in 2003 and 2.5m tons in 2004. China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) is to buy 2m tons in 2003.

As reported earlier, YUKOS was the first Russian company that exported 3.6m barrels of oil to the USA last summer.

Moreover, YUKOS is one of the participants in the project on constructing the Western Siberia-Murmansk oil pipeline aimed at transporting oil to the USA. According to the project, taking into account the laying of this oil pipeline, the share of oil imports from Russia may amount to 13 percent in the structure of US oil imports.

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