Winter shipping restrictions that have boosted freight costs at Russia's flagship Baltic crude loading port Primorsk are likely to be eased in the first 10 days of April, a port official told Reuters on Friday.
Passage to load the frozen port's 840,000 barrel-per-day throughput is currently limited to ice-class tankers.
"The first signs of thaw have begun," said Oleg Kudryantsev, head of winter operations for Russia's north Baltic ports. "It will be clearer by around March 24, but it is possible to expect an easing in the first 10 days of April."
A chronic lack of ice-class vessels meant freight rates soared for Primorsk's shippers after the introduction in January of restrictions at the port - a key export point for Russia's booming crude oil output.
The restrictions were tightened in February to bar tankers under ice-class L3 (LU2). Now officials are looking to unwind the restrictions by allowing lesser, L4 (LU1) class vessels passage to the port under the escort of ice-breakers.
"As a rule we begin to relax restrictions in early April," Kudryantsev said. "The need for ice-breakers usually disappears by the end of that month".