Surprisingly, if we talk about crude oil, its volume growth was driven by the commodity prices slump on the global markets. Russia has joined the global price war, trying to keep their market share.

In 2015 Russia exported via the Port of Primorsk 45,14 million tonnes of crude oil or 7% more than a year before, crude shipments through the Port of Ust-Luga grew by 15%, reaching 26,81 million tonnes. It should be noted that according to previously announced plans of Transneft the flow of oil through Primorsk should not grow as there is a conversion of the pipeline for pumping Euro 5 standard diesel fuel.

With regard to the Ust-Luga, crude oil is handled at the terminal Neva Pipeline Company. The design capacity of the facility is 38 million tonnes of crude oil per year. Accordingly, in the case of the further growth of oil exports through the Baltic Sea region major volume of the commodity will be largely transshipped at Ust-Luga.

Big Port of St. Petersburg saw a decline in petroleum products with a simultaneous increase in volumes at the Port of Ust-Luga with a 19% gain to 30.5 million tonnes thanks, primarily, to the development of the terminal Ust-Luga Oil. In 2015 the terminal reached its full capacity limit of 30 million tonnes per year. The terminal exported about 10.7 million tonnes of light products, including 8 million tonnes of stable gas condensate (SGC) produced by NOVATEK and 17.5 million tonnes of heavy fuel oil. Thus, the terminal has partially attracted some fuel oil volumes previously exported through St. Petersburg, where, among other things, offshore transshipment terminals did not operate last year. The decline in products volume at St. Petersburg was also attributed to problems with inland navigation.

In the Port of Primorsk, a 29-percent spike in oil products volume (14.5 million tonnes) is associated with the above mentioned specialization of the pipeline.

Last year also saw an increase in products volume at Port Vysotsky, at the offshore transshipment terminal RPK Vysotsk LUKOIL-II. In 2016 throughput of the terminal will continue to grow as the Primorsk-Vysotsk pipeline should start to supply diesel fuel up to 3 million tonnes per year (increasing capacity to 5 million tonnes annually).