The President of Transneft Nikolay Tokarev has been interviewed by Russia 24 TV channel, the official corporate webpage reported.
The head of oil pipeline company noted that current production of petroleum products in Russia fully covers the need of the domestic market.
“All recent collisions occurred not because this resource is in short supply. This year, 68 million tonnes of diesel fuel will have been produced, whereas the domestic market’s demand is estimated at 32 – 33 million tonnes. It’s more about administration of all these processes, our domestic problem,” said Tokarev in his interview.
Commenting on this year’s export of crude oil he said that export of Russian crude sagged because of a lot of factors, including the OPEC+ agreement on contraction of oil production.
According to the company’s President, Transneft roughly estimates crude production growth in Russia at 2 million tonnes for 2019, despite the OPEC+ deal.
“Our investment cycle ends in 2020: i.e. our largest projects will have been completed by that time, so from then on, the focus will be shifted to technical upgrading, overhaul and revamping programmes. The point is that nearly half of our pipelines, I mean oil pipes, were built in the 1960s and have worn out. They need to be timely replaced, so that the pipe ageing would not outrun pipe renewal. We are now facing this highly relevant and very important challenge, and we will allocate about RUR 200 bln ($ 3 mio) annually to address this problem,” Tokarev pointed out.