Russia Approves Plans for Three Baltic Terminals

The Russian region of Leningrad has approved plans to build three new oil terminals on the Gulf of Finland that could boost Russia's export capacity to northwest Europe by 600,000 barrels a day by 2008. Officials from the region, which surrounds the city of St. Petersburg, said yesterday they had approved construction applications from German-owned oil terminal operator Oiltanking and Russia's Severo-Zapadny Alliance. Russia's third-largest oil firm, TNK-BP Ltd., in which oil major BP PLC has a 50-per-cent stake, was also granted permission to continue a feasibility study for its planned terminal. The Russian section of the Gulf of Finland has at least a dozen new oil export projects, and if they all come to fruition total annual oil shipments on the Baltic Sea could push beyond 3.4 million bpd.

News source: www.theglobeandmail.com