Russia has cut exports of fuel oil, diesel and gasoline via Estonia by at least 30 percent in the first 10 days of May, trade sources said on Thursday, against the backdrop of an argument over a statue. They said shipments of refined oil products were likely to remain capped throughout May and June.
Russia's state railway, RZhD, said last week the route to Estonia was undergoing a regular maintenance but trading sources said the cut in refined products supplies was a Kremlin reaction to a row with Tallinn over a World War Two monument. Last month Estonia removed the statue of a Red Army soldier from Tallinn's centre, sparking two nights of riots by some of the sizeable Russian minority in the Baltic state and angering Moscow.
Some firms rushed to re-route the volumes, which had been initially slated for re-export to Europe via Estonia, to other ports. On Thursday, traders said some volumes had been finally cleared for exports via Estonia.
"The main schedule is now being cleared. It means that firms such as Surgut, Gazprom Neft and TNK-BP have been allowed to go to Estonia," said a major operator on the route, referring to three of Russia's top oil producers. "But the railway is declining to accept any additional schedule for May. I would say additional schedules usually amount to 30-35 percent of the total," he said.
Estonia's ports of Tallinn and Muuga are the transit points for around a quarter of Russia's total refined products exports and are much the biggest outlets, far outweighing smaller terminals on the Russian Baltic and Black Sea coast. Shipments amount to 25 million tonnes a year or between 390,000-480,000 tonnes a week, according to different estimates and depending on the period of the year.
"The decline in May could be even bigger than 30 percent," said a source at one of Muuga's biggest terminals. He said he was hearing that Russia's Kirishi refinery, which belongs to oil firm Surgutneftegas was the only exporter to have fully cleared its plan for May.
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