UPDATE: Rosneft asks Transneft delay oil pumping via Zapolyarye-Purpe pipe

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SALEKHARD, Jun 9 (PRIME) -- Russian state-owned oil major Rosneft has asked oil pipeline monopoly Transneft to delay the launch of oil pumping through the Zapolyarye–Purpe pipeline to 2018 from 2017, Rasim Mingazetdinov, head of a department at Transneft, told reporters Thursday on the sidelines of a forum.

“They have written a letter that includes a zero (amount of oil pumping) in 2017. But our contract talks about 3.3 million tonnes (in 2017), while they asked for a zero. They will start pumping only in 2018…They have proposed a zero in 2017, 5.5 million tonnes in 2018, and 7.1 million tonnes in 2019. Which means that a total decrease of pumping will stand at 4.9 million tonnes in the three years,” he said.

Earlier, Rosneft planned to pump 6.57 million tonnes of oil through the pipeline in 2018 and 7.5 million tonnes in 2019.

Rosneft sent the letter on June 1, he said.

But no other oil companies requested any changes in forecasted pumping of crude through the pipeline, he added.

In April, Transneft CEO Nikolai Tokarev said the company planned to launch its Zapolyarye–Purpe oil pipeline in November.

Previously, some oil companies that are to transport oil through the pipeline delayed launches of their fields from 2016. But in May 2015, Tokarev said that Transneft had reached a deal with Lukoil that in 2016 the oil major will supply small amounts of oil through the pipe so that Transneft doesn’t have to suspend the system operation.

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