MOSCOW (AP) - Russian largest oil producer Lukoil has received government permission to ship up 12 million metric tons of oil and oil products annually through a new Baltic terminal that it hopes to use to boost shipments to western Europe and the United States.
Lukoil President Vagit Alekperov and Railways Minister Gennady Fadeyev signed a contract over the weekend envisaging shipments of 5 million tons of oil products by train to the terminal in 2003 and 2004, the company said in a statement. The shipments could grow to 10-12 million tons a year from 2005.
The new terminal, on the island of Vysotsky near St. Petersburg, is expected to be completed this year. Lukoil said the oil and oil products shipped through the terminal would be aimed at western European and U.S. markets.
The terminal will be able to load tankers with dead weight of up to 70,000 tons.
Russia is the world's second-largest oil producer, and several of the country's aggressive young oil companies are looking to expand to lucrative western markets. No. 2 oil producer Yukos sent its first shipment of crude to the United States earlier this month.