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Russian oil deliveries to China by unit train

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Found this article on the AP breaking news line. The article states that 33,000 barrels per day would be deliverd by Russian railroads to China. If that is a single unit train, then that comes out to roughly 4700 tons per train. That begs the question as to why Russian unit trains can only handle a tonnage that is the equivalent of a U.S. TOFC train? Why can't they run a more efficient 10,000 or 15,000 ton unit train service? http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB113JSX1E.html Nov 24, 2004 Lukoil Announces New Rail Deliveries to China as Yukos Stock Continues Its Fall By Alex Nicholson Associated Press Writer MOSCOW (AP) - Lukoil, Russia's second biggest oil producer, said Wednesday it would send 33,000 barrels of oil per day to China by rail in the first quarter of 2005, making up for some of the supply to the energy-hungry country that was slashed by its bigger, embattled rival Yukos. Meanwhile, OAO Yukos stock sank further as its biggest production unit is readied for a Dec. 19 auction that the state, in one form or another, is expected to win. With its bank accounts frozen, Yukos is facing a cash-crunch as it fights to pay down crippling multibillion dollar back tax bill. Lukoil's deliveries will partially cover the 400,000 tons per month that Russia's No.1 producer was forced to cut in October. Russian Railways vice president Khasyan Zabirov told the Interfax agency that Lukoil would ship 400,000 metric tons in the first three months of 2005 - equivalent to about 33,000 barrels per day. Earlier, Lukoil said it would ship 60,000 tons of crude by the end of November, and 100,000 more tons in December. Yukos founder and ex-CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky has spent more than a year in jail as a separate criminal fraud and tax evasion trial against him grinds on. While the Kremlin has frequently cast the charges against Yukos and Khodorkovsky as a drive against shady bookkeeping, others say the charges were provoked by Khodorkovsky's aggressive lobbying and political activities. Tax authorities shoveled on new tax claims against Yukos last Friday, sending the company's total bill to a staggering $24.5 billion, and putting its stock into a tailspin. On the same day, an auction date was finally set for a 77 percent stake in Yukos's core production unit Yuganskneftegaz, a development that market watchers have said could see the company divvied up between Kremlin-connected oil firms. On Wednesday afternoon, Yukos shares were down more than 12 percent on Moscow's RTS, while trading was halted three times on the MICEX exchange following sharp losses. At its peak, Yukos had a market capitalization of over $40 billion but today the company is worth less than a tenth of that. Analysts expect that Yuganskneftegaz will be sold for a fraction above its $8.6 billion starting price for the auction - a low figure for a subsidiary that produces 1 million barrels per day and accounts for over 60 percent of Yukos' output. Russian and international energy giants, however, have denied an interest in acquiring an asset that analysts say has "buyer beware" written all over it: Menatep Group - the Gibraltar-registered investment vehicle created by Khodorkovsky that owns 60 percent of Yukos - has promised to wrest back Yuganskneftegaz through the courts. Nonetheless, observers expect that the state will eventually take control of the company. The most likely buyer is the state oil monopoly Gazprom, though the company has repeatedly denied that it plans to bid. If no bids are received and the auction is ruled void, the stake will automatically be passed over to the government. As well as marginalizing Khodorkovsky's political clout, the assault on Yukos is seen as part of the Kremlin's strategy to recapture influence in the politically important oil sector. In a series of much-criticized insider deals in the 1990s, the country's oil companies - including Yukos - were parceled-out at bargain prices to a handful of Kremlin-connected tycoons. Today, tough oil taxes have swelled the government's coffers, while the sprawling Gazprom - already the biggest gas producer in the world and supplier of a quarter of Europe's gas - is set to become more powerful on world energy markets after a pending merger with the state's Rosneft oil company. The government-controlled monopoly has already spread its tentacles into many spheres: it recently consolidated a stake in Mosenergo, which generates electricity for Moscow and the surrounding region, and reported Friday it had acquired a controlling stake in Atomstroiexport, which builds nuclear power plants overseas. But Russia's economic pointman, Economic Development and Trade minister German Gref, warned at a government meeting Wednesday that the company's expansion was harming competition. "We are creating a Gazprom hypermonopoly," Gref said in comments carried by Russian agencies. "We increase gas tariffs and Gazprom invests in all imaginable and unimaginable businesses...All that remains is for it to buy the railways and then everyone can go home."
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