Russia's Putin to launch Pacific oil terminal

Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin will oversee on Monday the loading of the first tanker to carry Siberian oil to Asian markets from the nation's new Pacific terminal, the government said on Sunday.

The launch will be attended by top Russian officials and oil industry chiefs in a political show aimed at showing Europe that global competition for Russian energy resources is set to rise further.

"The diversification of (oil) supply routes was always one of the priorities of Russia's energy policy. The diversification does not harm our partnership with customers in Western Europe," said Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

"The terminal's launch is a very important step on our way towards diversification."

The tanker, which belongs to state-run oil firm Rosneft, will carry 1,00,000 tonnes of ESPO crude — named after the acronym of Russia's first pipeline to China and the Pacific — from the port of Kozmino near the city of Vladivostok.

Russia, the world's top oil producer as Saudi Arabia keeps to OPEC-led supply curbs, plans to export 3.1 million tonnes (250,000 bpd) of the ESPO Blend via Kozmino in the first quarter of 2010.

Exports could rise to 6,00,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the next few years.

Although the pipeline, which will link virgin East Siberian oil fields with the Pacific coast, will only be finished in four years, the terminal's launch marks another victory for Putin in the global energy battle.

In 2009, Putin, the chief lobbyist for Russia's energy interests, secured permissions for gas pipelines, which will run through the Black and Baltic Seas, delivering Russian gas to energy-hungry Europe and bypassing troublesome transit states.

Russia has long been seeking to diversify its oil exports away from the West amid often frosty relations with the European Union, its leading trade partner, but is also worried about becoming overly dependent on China.

Russia plans to ship 9,00,000 tonnes of ESPO crude from Kozmino in January, making the terminal Russia's No.3 seaborne oil outlet after Primorsk on the Baltic Sea and Novorossiisk on the Black Sea.