RusEnergy

07.12.2006 - MosNews - Russia will give domestic oil companies equal access to export pipelines - a move that is likely to be welcomed by smaller producers — a senior energy official said on Thursday, Dec. 7. “We would like to divide export lines in line with the (right) of equal access - each company should get a bucket in each destination,” Vadim Rybin, head of the oil department with the Federal Energy Agency, was quoted by RIA Novosti as saying in Shanghai, China. The Russian official said that the working group made up of specialists from the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service, Industry and Energy Ministry, the Federal Energy Agency and oil pipeline monopoly Transneft, is already working on a relevant document. “It will be an absolutely new system,” Rybin said. Within the framework of the new system, the companies will be able to retransfer their rights for oil export to different directions in accordance with their interests. “Of course, we won’t be able to do this right away, in one moment,” Rybin said, noting that the system will need three-four months for “fitting”, adding that in the end everything will turn out to be “honest and fair”. The government official said the measure was likely to please smaller companies, who have been complaining of being denied fair access to export pipelines in favor of larger market players. Speaking about new system, Rybin stressed: “This is not a revolution. This is about bringing the situation in line with law.” Russia is the world’s second-largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia