October 26, 2011 [Gazeta.ru] – Transneft considers establishing a joint venture with Summa Group, the company which recently won a tender together with the Dutch company VTTI to build the TEW oil terminal in the port of Rotterdam.
The idea of ​​forming a joint venture was initiated by the Russian government, industry sources said. Its purpose is to gradually bring Russian Urals to world standards.
Investment group Summa, controlled by Ziyavudin Magomedov, offered Transneft to form a joint venture for the handling of Russian crude in Rotterdam, the head of the oil pipeline monopoly, Nikolai Tokarev, said on Tuesday.
The idea of forming a ​​joint venture is to sell Russian Urals crude FOB Rotterdam in cooperation with other Russian companies.
“There should not be a direct interest in participating in the joint venture for Transneft”, Dmitry Alexandrov of Univer Investment Company said. “Transneft is a pipeline company, the activity of which is restricted to Russia and neighboring countries”, the expert said. “And to rent pipeline capacities in Rotterdam makes no sense for them.” According to Alexandrov, the invitation for Rotterdam would have been far more interesting for oil traders, like for Gennady Timchenko’s Gunvor, through which the majority of Russian oil supplies flows in the north-west direction.
“However, obviously, Transneft, which is today in alliance with Summa already controlling major oil terminals in Russia, intends to develop its global presence through entering the port infrastructure market in Europe”, Alexandrov believes. “And, perhaps, in future, in Asia as well”.
A representative of Transneft was unavailable for comments on Tuesday, but the industry source said to Gazeta.ru that the terminal project in Rotterdam was from the very beginning aimed at the oil pipeline monopoly, whilst Trasneft has been denying any connection to the project.
Russian officials are trying to make Urals crude a benchmark, the source said: “They expect Urals crude to become a benchmark, such as, for example, BRENT”. Earlier, sources reported that the Summa’s plan to enter into the port of Rotterdam originated from Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin. The Russian initiators of this plan expect to create at the “open hub” a so-called live market for Urals crude, with sales in both large and small batches.
