Estonia sees end to Russian oil transit

Gertrud Levit
gertrud.levit @ aripaev.ee

Estonia has seen a steady fall in volumes of Russian oil product exports and is eventually expecting the flow to dry up completly, a top railway official said, Reuters writes.

Russia used to export a quarter of its heavy fuel oil, about 25 million tonnes a year, as well as light products, through Estonia's port of Tallinn. But a diplomatic quarrel led Russian railways to divert most of the light products to its own ports.

This will also in the future apply to heavy fuel oil, said Estonian Railways Chairman Kaido Simmermann.

In three or four years we are planning to have no Russian oil through Estonia. Maybe some smaller volumes, but not like what we have today," he told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.

He said part of the heavy fuel oil shipments coming from the Kirishi refinery would be diverted to Russia's Ust Luga port.

They will have the port ready at the beginning of next year or in the middle of next year," he said. "So we are preparing ourselves for that new situation."