TALLINN - Six weeks after the removal of the Bronze Soldier monument, smaller oil exporters have borne the brunt of the cut in shipments via Estonian ports while large oil companies continue business as usual. Speaking in St. Petersburg on June 9, Vladimir Yakunin, CEO of Russian Railroads, said the freight traffic to Estonia has not undergone significant changes.
"Russian Railroads is meeting all the applications for crude and petroleum product transportation to the Baltic republics," he said. "The company can get 20-22 trains to Estonia per day."
He added that annual cargo deliveries to Estonia would amount to 20 million tons.
Russian Railroads announced at the end of April that it would begin repairs to a section of the railroad in northwestern Russia beginning May 1. The announcement came just after the April 26 's 27 riots in Estonia that left one dead and some 120 injured. The rioting was sparked by the government's decision to remove a Soviet war memorial from downtown Tallinn.
In the first days of May, contradictory statements were made by government, Russian Railroads' officials and oil traders, so that there was little clarity in the true state of affairs.
A report out of Moscow, however, suggests that small oil exporters have found it increasingly difficult to export their products via Estonia.
Traders said that shipments of gasoline and crude to Estonian ports have been complicated following recommendations by state railways to reroute volumes to other ports, according to a Reuters report.
"The situation is very obscure. The biggest players are allowed to go to Estonia, but smaller firms have received an order to go to other ports," a trader was quoted by the news agency as saying. As an example, he said he had failed to gain clearance in June for exporting Russian gasoline bought from a refinery and was forced to transfer the liquid cargo to another port on the Baltic Sea.
According to Reuters, Russian Railways said last week that the number of rail cars going to Estonia had been slashed from 1,500 to 980 per day. The company said it has asked exporters to seek alternate export routes in Latvia or Lithuania. Timber cargoes should be sent to Finland, the company also suggested, Reuters reported.
Currently the largest Russian oil exporters via Estonia are the Kirishi refinery, which belongs to Surgutneftegaz, TNK-BP and Gazprom.
