MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's No. 2 oil producer Yukos will send its first tankers to the United States this summer, a top executive said Thursday, amid Russian efforts to offer U.S. consumers an alternative to Persian Gulf oil.
"We plan to start pilot oil shipments to the U.S. East Coast or the Gulf of Mexico," Mikhail Brudno, first vice president of Yukos, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying at an investor conference.
"We believe we will be able to develop such a system where oil shipments to the United States will be just as efficient as to Europe," he said. He did not say how much oil the shipments would include.
Other Yukos officials said the move was largely symbolic and that it is still far too expensive for them to ship large amounts of crude to American consumers.
Russia currently supplies a tiny percentage of U.S. imports, but U.S. officials have expressed interest in boosting supplies amid mounting tensions in the Persian Gulf region. The bid won a new jolt of support during U.S. George W. Bush's visit to Russia last week.
"For Russia to become a primary supplier to the U.S., it probably requires some additional infrastructure," Yukos chief financial officer Bruce Misamore told the conference. "Some of the facilities that we need such as deep-water ports don't even exist."
Misamore said as long as Russian producers can sell all their crude closer to home, it makes no sense to lose profit margin by paying extra transportation costs. However, "as long as we're expanding production we may have to look for new outlets to sell our crude ... and the U.S. could be one of those places," he added.
High world oil prices drove Russia's economic growth in 2000 and 2001 - and the growth of Yukos and other Russian oil majors. Oil is Russia's chief export commodity and oil export taxes provide substantial funds to the budget.
Yukos has gobbled up Russian and foreign assets in its growth drive. Misamore said he expects Yukos to close a deal with the Lithuanian government and Oklahoma-based Williams Inc. to take a blocking stake in the Mazeikiu Nafta refinery.
Yukos on Thursday announced that its net profit in 2001 fell to dlrs 3.47 billion from dlrs 3.69 billion the year before, as a fall in crude prices in the final months of the year offset its higher production volumes and exports.
The company nonetheless said it would raise its annual dividend 78 percent to 6.82 rubles (21 cents) a share from 3.84 rubles (12 cents). That represents a dividend payout of approximately dlrs 500 million.
The figures were generally above analysts' forecasts.
Yukos chief executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky said the company will exercise "tight control over production costs" and "aims to meet its targets of production growth and market expansion."