Posted on 05/30/2002 2:21:04 PM PDT by Dallas
MOSCOW --
Russia's No. 2 oil producer Yukos will send its first tankers to the United States this summer, a top executive said Thursday, as part of a Russian effort to offer U.S. consumers an alternative to Persian Gulf oil.
Russia currently supplies a tiny percentage of U.S. imports, but U.S. officials have expressed interest in increasing Russia's share of the market. Oil is Russia's chief export and oil export taxes are a big part of the national budget.
"We plan to start pilot oil shipments to the U.S. East Coast or the Gulf of Mexico," Mikhail Brudno, first vice president of Yukos, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying at an investor conference.
"We believe we will be able to develop such a system where oil shipments to the United States will be just as efficient as to Europe," he said. He did not say how much oil the shipments would include.
Other Yukos officials said the move was largely symbolic and it is still far too expensive for them to ship large amounts of crude to American consumers.
"For Russia to become a primary supplier to the U.S., it probably requires some additional infrastructure," Yukos chief financial officer Bruce Misamore said. "Some of the facilities that we need such as deep-water ports don't even exist."
Misamore said as long as Russian producers can sell all their crude closer to home, it makes no sense to lose money by paying extra transportation costs.
However "as long as we're expanding production we may have to look for new outlets to sell our crude ... and the U.S. could be one of those places," he said.
High world oil prices drove Russia's economic growth in 2000 and 2001 -- and the growth of Yukos and other Russian oil companies.
Yukos on Thursday announced that its net profit in 2001 fell to $3.5 billion from $3.7 billion the year before, as a fall in crude prices in the final months of the year offset its higher production volumes and exports.
The company nonetheless said it would raise its annual dividend 78 percent to 21 cents a share from 12 cents. That represents a dividend payout of approximately $500 million.
The figures were generally above analysts' forecasts.
Copyright © 2002, The Associated Press
The big bucks being pumped into the middle east for oil is what is giving this whole fiasco its impetus.
What's a drop tank?
Thanks Osama!
Lots of energy news today.
You have had excellent insight to what they have been doing and why re all of the oil outside of the Opecker Magic Kingdom!
Their financing and grooming of OBL with the subsequent mass murder attack of 9/11, may have been the beginning of their murderous Cartel, Opec!
Kudos to Yukos!
Miss Marple another example of our stealth president in action under the noses of the leftist maggots who control the media. Slowly but surely he is smashing the Opec cartel. Without our petro$'s, the Opecker Princes can't finance terrorism, Jimmy Carter, the Clintoon and probably the envirals who work 24/7 to keep us dependent on Opecker oil.
Yob tvoyu mat, Osama!
If Bush were brilliant, he would have told his daddy 10 years agos to develop other sources of energy than the Middle East. Instead Daddy decided to maintain the status quo and wage the Gulf War instead. Well, it's what his oil buddies want.
Oil is vital to the health of the American economy. Energy policy is what created Ossam bin Laden in the first place. But I suppose this may be a start.
Brilliant would be forcing Congress to open up domestic sources of oil, like Alaska. But Bush just took the Florida gulf coast out of the picture by caving in to the environmentalists. I don't call that brilliant. I call it cheap politics.
The votes are not there for ANWR right now. That's the fact, and I cry myself a river, build a bridge, GET OVER IT, and work to make sure the votes are there when it comes up again.
But de-funding Islamic terror is a must, and to do that, we need a new supply of oil. Hence, Russia, which has so much, we can move to them, and even pull back a little until we have a better political situation in the Senate.
Politics, yes. But ignoring it will cause you to lose elections, and if you lose elections, you don't have any effect on policy or legislation.
Americans would instinctively know that this is a direct result of President Bush's wise decision to make a friend of Russia. I guess we can't have that, now can we?
This has the potential to be more than just help in the present war on terror.
It also is a big blow to China.
Does anyone know what the quality of the Russian crude is? How does it compare to Arabian light crude?
Well said. There is also another strategic way to look at this. The longer we use "other peoples" oil, the longer our own "in ground" resources will be preserved if they are ever needed. While I am all for drilling where ever we find oil, I do not mind keeping our oil in the ground while other cheap resources exist. This requires longer range thinking than many people are willing to engage in even environmentalists.
Another fact often overlooked is this. Even if we find an alternative fuel source that can replace Gasoline tomorrow, we will still need oil. There are many products ranging from lubricants, plastics to synthetics that are made from crude oil and its by-products. Some analysts see the demand for them increasing in the future. Oil means more than just gas for our cars - remember that. The more of our own crude we keep in the ground for future use, the better.
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