Eastern Siberian Railways’ Oil Shipments to China Down 1.2% in H1

IRKUTSK. July 14 (Interfax) – Some 4.4 million tonnes of crude oil was shipped by the Eastern Siberian Railways (ESR), an affiliate of Russian Railways (RZD) (RTS: RZHD), to China in January-June 2008, a decline of 1.2% from the same period of 2007, the ESR told Interfax.

ESR shipped more than 736,000 tonnes of crude to China in June alone, a decline of 0.6% from June 2007.

ESR only exports oil via the Zabaikalsk checkpoint in 2008, whereas in 2007 oil was also shipped through Naushki.

It was reported earlier that ESR planned to maintain oil shipments to China at last year’s level in 2008. ESR shipped 8.992 million tonnes of oil to China in 2007, down 12.4% from 2006. Of that amount, 8.942 million tonnes of oil were shipped via Zabaikalsk. Only 50,000 tonnes of oil were shipped via Naushki in 2007. Oil shipments via Naushki ceased in April 2007.

The Eastern Siberia Railways straddles four constituent regions of Russia: the Irkutsk and Chita regions, as well as the Buryatia and Sakha-Yakutia republics.

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