The government-owned Russian Railways (RZhD), which delivers crude by rail, and the government’s pipeline company Transneft, which owns the port company, disagree about the cause of the slowdown.
Transneft’s Igor Dyomin told Fairplay that Kozmino’s current loading rate is eight trains per day; with a 5,000-tonne load per train, three days are required to load a single Aframax tanker.
Dyomin blamed a railcar jam for the low rate.
“The problem is caused by lack of co-ordination between RZhD and the port management. The port doesn’t keep up with RZhD’s tempo and cannot unload the railcar tanks as fast as necessary. It’s a long-standing problem; it exists in all ports,” he said.
However, RZhD spokesman Yelena Kulakova told Fairplay: “The problem is caused by the port alone. The port was unloading the cars five to six times slower than agreed, and RZhD was receiving the cars back with a serious delay.”