Russia will ship about 10 million tons of oil to China by rail in 2005, Russian Railways' CEO Gennady Fadeyev said Wednesday. Russia's largest oil company, Lukoil, signed an agreement with the railways company to send 3 million tons by rail next year. "Our company is capable of fulfilling these supplies," said Lukoil chief executive Vagit Alekperov. Fadeyev said that Lukoil's transportation tariffs would gradually be decreased from the current US$72 (¤52.80) a ton to US$30 (¤22) a ton as volumes increase. Alekperov also said that Lukoil and Russian Railways had signed an agreement to ship 7 million tons of oil by rail to the Baltic Sea port of Vysotsk, near St. Petersburg next year. Vysotsk is used to export oil by tankers to Europe. Separately, Fadeyev said that the Yukos oil company had signed an agreement to ship 250,000 tons of oil to China by rail in January 2005. He estimated that Yukos could also raise its exports to China to some 3 million tons in 2005. State-owned Rosneft plans to supply 4 million tons to China next year.
