Transneft suspends oil loadings except for Makhachkala

[MOSCOW] Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft has suspended oil loadings through all Russian ports except for Makhachkala due to bad weather conditions, RIA news agency said on Monday.

Russia is the world's second biggest oil exporter behind Saudi Arabia, shipping around 4 million barrels of oil per day. Just over half is sent from Russia's largest ports - Novorossiisk, Kozmino, Primorsk and Ust-Luga.

Igor Dyomin, Transneft spokesman, told RIA that loadings from the Pacific port of Kozmino were stopped on Oct 27 due to a storm. The Baltic ports of Primorsk and Ust-Luga have also stopped loadings due to a storm warning.

Earlier on Monday, Transneft suspended oil supplies via its Tikhoretsk-Novorossiisk pipeline due to poor weather conditions at the port. Dyomin was quoted as saying there were "working conditions" only at the Caspian port of Makhachkala.

It was not clear whether Transneft had suspended only oil loadings at the ports or also pumping via oil pipelines.

Sources at Novorossiisk port told Reuters that loadings were suspended at two tankers - 80,000 tonnes and 140,000 tonnes-heavy, respectively. "The weather is not very good ... It's one storm warning after the other. For now everything has stopped," one of the sources said.

REUTERS