Vladimir Socor, Eurasia Daily Monitor, Volume: 9 Issue: 39 February 24, 2012
Russia is set to start crude oil exports through the Baltic Pipeline System’s second trunkline, BPS-2, with its Ust-Luga maritime terminal at the Russian end of the Baltic Sea. The BPS-1 trunkline is already operating since 2009 with its Primorsk maritime terminal. The oil is shipped on tankers via the Baltic Sea and North Sea to European consumer countries along that route, with Rotterdam as a major final destination.

The BPS system enables Russia to reduce oil export volumes through the overland Druzhba pipelines, which run via Belarus and Ukraine toward central Europe; and correspondingly to increase Russian exports through the BPS system and the maritime tanker route. This shift has been ongoing piecemeal since the opening of BPS-1 and Primorsk in 2009. The process can now accelerate somewhat with the launching of BPS-2 and Ust-Luga in March of this year.

Russia’s objectives are to reduce its reliance on overland transit countries; to connect directly with West-European countries by the maritime route; to de-value Druzhba pipeline sections in neighbor countries through under-utilization, possibly in preparation for Russian takeover bids; and to have total pipeline capacities available in excess of Russia’s exports, potentially enabling manipulative changes to the export flows and playing off various customers against each other.

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