Russia has the potential to export more than 1 million tons of green petroleum coke (petcoke) to Turkey, Legion Oil & Gas LLC senior trader Yury Burenko said in an interview with World Coal News. The interview on Russian petcoke exports was conducted during the 2016 Mediterranean Coal Markets Conference.
This conference is organized by the Metal Expert Group, and took place September 22 to 23, 2016 in Istanbul, Turkey.
“There are 10 delayed coking units operating in the country. Three of them, with 1.5 million ton capacity in total, were put on stream in the summer of 2016,” Burenko said.
Russia will continue building new petcoke units as the country is set to improve refining depth and increase light oil product output. The modernization program could last until 2022.
“The supplies from Russia into the Turkish market might exceed 50,000 to 100,000 tons per month next year if there are factors to contribute to the increase,” Burenko said. “Among them [are] subdued demand in the Russian domestic market, a weak ruble and high coke prices in Turkey.”
Burenko also explained why Russian petcoke exports are growing recently.
“Taxation changes were among the drivers for the upturn in petroleum coke exports. With the so‑called tax maneuver, the export duty on petroleum coke set on a monthly basis has fallen 16‑fold since the start of last year, from $180/t to $11/t.”
“Russia did not export petroleum coke at all two years ago. The duty is $5.9/t in October 2016,” Burenko added.
LEGION Oil & Gas LLC expects the government will keep supporting Russian petcoke exports by launching reduced tariffs for railway transportation. Shipments of petroleum coke on the same routes are now much more expensive than coal ones, which we find groundless, as coke is a byproduct of a high‑tech process boosting competitiveness for Russia’s refining industry. This is what must be supported.
You can read full interview with Legion Oil & Gas LLC below.
interview
