OREANDA-NEWS. December 21, 2011. Due to some unexpected engineering problems in Ust’-Luga port, commissioning of the second line of the Baltic Pipeline System (BPS-2) will be only possible in the first quarter of the year 2012. According to TRANSNEFT’s official representative’s declaration, such a decision has been made during the conference chaired by Igor Sechin, the vice-premier of the Russian Federation, the main theme of which was the problem of an emergency situation at ROSNEFTBUNKER terminal in Ust’-Luga on November 25th, 2011.

The representative has also declared that TRANSNEFT will be appointed as an emergency coordinator in the forthcoming troubleshooting. It was agreed that there will be held a research work of the hydrodynamics of the finished buildings (primarily, it refers to the locked grooves) before starting troubleshooting. The Company’s spokesman has also specified that KOKSOKHIMMONTAZH will still remain a contractor of the work at the 4th and the 5th moorings, and ROSNEFTBUNKER and NEVSKAYA PIPELINE COMPANY (NPC) will act as employers. The representative of ROSNEFTBUNKER’s proprietor informed as follows: “the work at the 4th and the 5th moorings, both in deep dredging and in mooring wall reconstruction, are accomplished”. He said that some extra time is required for examination of remedied failures. “It is essential now that we should make an additional complex examination of the finished object with the involvement of all the parties concerned herewith, and it will surely take some extra time. We pay very much attention not to a formal adherence to some abstract time schedules, but to the insurance of an adequate safety level on the facilities,” he said.

At the same time, TRANSNEFT explores the possibility of using the pipeline which has already been built for deliveries optimization. For example, it is possible to use the line pipe of BPS-2 for oil supply to Polotsk, and also by means of reversing flow of Andreapol-Palkino section to Primorsk. The Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation has informed that there are free exporting capacities which may run such volumes of oil, which could only have been planned to be carried by transport before. “The Country should analyze all the risks which may arise as a consequence of this project. Today we can see that we have no essential risks. We do have alternative direction, very many directions, and all of them do have extra possibilities”. The Ministry has also pointed out that the delay of BPS-2 commissioning doesn't have any critical consequences neither for oil companies, nor for the Country itself. The Ministry has declared: “The delay of commissioning is not a vital problem, and neither oil companies, nor the Country will carry any losses”.