Baltic, Cargo, Oil, Port, Railways, Russia, Transport

“This discount will adjust Russian Railways’ tariffs in this direction to the tariffs [on shipments] to the ports of Ventspils and Klaipeda. Until now, oil products were not shipped from Belarus to Russian ports, so any increase in the shipping of high value added oil products will provide additional revenue to Russian Railways,” the business paper said.

It is assumed that the discount will be effective until the end of 2018. If adopted in accordance with the usual procedure, it will come into effect ten days after the decision’s publication.

The reduced tariffs would be in Russian Railways interests, given that oil product shipping via pipelines has been declining lately. Forecasts suggest that the shipping of oil and oil products via railway in Russia is likely to decrease by 6.2% to 235.7 mln tons this year, and to drop further by 2.9% to 228.8 mln tons in 2017.

“We are absolutely in favor of increasing cargo shipping in Russian territory, and this initiative in particular. But the project’s success will depend not only on Russian Railways, but also other participants of this process,” Kommersant quoted a representative of Neftetransservis, a private rail cargo operator, as saying.