New Russian oil terminal would double petroleum transport in Gulf of Finland

by Heli Saavalainen

The Russian oil giant LUKoil has started construction work on a new oil terminal on the island of Vysotsk (formerly known by the Finnish name Uuras) south of Vyborg (formerly Viipuri).
Earth moving work is in full swing in the north-eastern part of the Gulf of Finland. The rapid start of the project came as a surprise. Still in June Finnish observers dismissed the whole issue as Russia's internal politics.

The new facility is to be built near the Primorsk oil terminal which started operations earlier this year. LUKoil hopes to build the Vysotsk terminal as quickly as possible. The goal is to have the first 70,000 ton oil tankers leave the harbour already in September next year.
The oil is to be transported to Vysotsk by train. LUKoil and the Russian Ministry of Transport agreed that the Ministry would take measures to increase rail transport capacity between St Petersburg and Vysotsk. The planned oil terminal would double the amount of oil being transported in the eastern Gulf of Finland, as the annual capacity of the new oil terminal would be about the same as that of the fist stage of the nearby Primorsk terminal -- nearly 10 mm tons.

News of the beginning of the construction work on the terminal and its tight schedule came as a complete surprise to Finnish environment officials; it was only in June that it was revealed that there were any plans for an oil terminal in Vysotsk. Finland has not been officially informed by Russia about the beginning of the construction. At the beginning of July Environment Minister Jouni Backman (Soc. Dem.) made a written request for information on the harbour project on the Gulf of Finland, but no answer came.
Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen (Soc. Dem.) has also demanded more information about the project. The Prime Minister's summer holiday substitute, the Minister of Trade and Industry Sinikka Moenkaere (Soc. Dem.), did not want to comment on the issue.
"What can we do if they build oil terminals? We can only hope that they are built to be as safe as possible", Moenkaere said. Environment Ministry official Henna Haapala points out that the whole project was supposed to be in the discussion stage. "Apparently the harbour does not even have a building permit", she says.

The project also came as a surprise to Kimmo Rahkamo, head of acquisitions at the Finnish energy company Fortum. In June Rahkamo did not think that the prospect of an oil terminal at Vysotsk was a serious idea. "The schedule is ambitious to say the least", Rahkamo says.
However, he still believes that there is a certain amount of politics involved in the project. "LUKoil wants to boost its position on the Russian market." Henna Haapala is concerned about the risks involved. "Everything that increases the transport of oil and hazardous materials in the Gulf of Finland is a cause for concern", she says.
"On the other hand, oil is transported from Finland and Estonia. It is not our business to forbid the construction of a harbour. What we can influence is that as much attention as possible should be paid to the environmental impact."

The head of the maritime monitoring unit of the Ministry of Natural Resources of North-western Russia, Valeri Zaitsev, confirms that the harbour lacks a building permit.
"LUKoil has commissioned the project, but we have not received any official papers about it", he says. Under Russian law an environmental impact assessment is a precondition for a building permit. However, Zaitsev feels that the project is a realistic one on the scale that has been planned.
"There would not be any very large tanker vessels coming to the terminal, as it is not deep enough. In addition, the route is very difficult, because the channel is narrow and rocky", he explains. Zaitsev is also worried about the increase of oil transport in the labyrinthine archipelago. "Now we only have one person working near Vysotsk. We must increase supervision, if we get a real oil terminal there."

Earth-movers are now removing rocks and stumps from a fieldof sand several hectares in size on the seashore. A cornerstone which looks like a monument of some kind has been put up near the shore with a plaque saying that the LUKoil II oil terminal is to be built on the spot.
The cornerstone was put there at the end of June and construction workers arrived on the spot about a month ago. They have been promised work until the autumn of 2003.

About 500 metres from the shore Vladimir Audrianov and Roman Lebedev are drilling into the ground with a gigantic drill. Men of the Russian naval research institute are studying the consistency of the ground where the oil terminal is to be built. According to Leonid Shitov, section chief at the institute, the spot will be the location of the harbour's first large oil storage tank.
"We have to go down all the way to the bedrock. That way, if there is a leak, the oil can be collected, and it will not go into the sea", says Shitov, as he watches the drilling. Shitov says that there will be a total of 18 large tanks. The biggest will contain up to 50,000 tons of oil.
The water is shallow far out to the sea. Off the shore there are two small island. Shitov says that a dam will be built in front of them to raise the water level in the harbour pool. The piers are to be built further from the shore. "The water is deep behind the islands. Besides, it is always possible to dredge the channel."