August 4, 2014 [Reuters] - Trading house Gunvor Group will this month start exporting gasoline from its oil terminal in the Russian Baltic port of Ust-Luga, a spokeswoman for its Ust-Luga Oil subsidiary said on Friday.
Initial exports in August will total around 80,000 tonnes of gasoline from Surgutneftegaz’s 420,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) Kirishi refinery, the Ust-Luga Oil spokeswoman said. Ust-Luga Oil is a fully owned subsidiary of oil trader Gunvor.
Kirishi previously exported gasoline through the Latvian port of Riga, and the reason for the change was unclear, industry sources said.
Surgutneftegaz declined to comment on the company’s commercial activities.
Gunvor Group’s co-owner Gennady Timchenko was hit by U.S. sanctions over Russia’s involvement in Crimea and Ukraine but sold his 43 percent stake in Gunvor to chief executive Torbjorn Tornqvist on March 19.
Surgut, Russia’s third-largest oil producer, started exporting diesel from Ust-Luga in June.
The volume of oil product exports at the terminal for the period January to June this year increased to 11.5 million tonnes, 1.5 times greater than those for the same period in 2013 . Oil product exports at the terminal will total 21.4 million tonnes by the end of the year, the company said.
