(For other news from the Reuters Russia Investment Summit, click
on http://www.reuters.com/summit/RussiaInvestment08?pid=500)
* Russia should reject oil deals with small intermediaries
* Middlemen to blame for Czech supply disruption
* Large, international oil traders welcome in Russia
By Robin Paxton
MOSCOW, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Russia, the world's No. 2 oil
exporter, has outgrown its need for small, intermediary traders
as its own producers have developed into major international
players, the head of the country's oil pipeline monopoly said.
Transneft <TRNF_p.RTS> President Nikolai Tokarev blamed
offshore middlemen for oil supply disruptions to the Czech
Republic in July that spilled over into the political arena, and
said only large traders had a place in today's Russian market.
"Small companies are making a mess, disturbing things,"
Tokarev said on Wednesday at the second Reuters Russia
Investment Summit. "Corruption stems from the large quantity of
intermediaries."
Tokarev, a close ally of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir
Putin from his KGB days, said the appearance of so many small
companies was a legacy of the 1990s, when newly privatised
Russian oil companies were emerging from the collapse of the
Soviet Union.
"That period has passed. Today, we have a different LUKOIL
<LKOH.MM> , a different Rosneft <ROSN.MM>," he said, referring
to Russia's two largest oil companies. "We will move more toward
direct contracts."
Russian oil supplies to the Czech Republic unexpectedly
halved in July from the usual 500,000 tonnes after Prague signed
an agreement to host a radar base as part of a U.S. missile
shield -- a move that was strongly opposed by Moscow.
Tokarev said the supply cut was not political but arose from
disagreements over pricing in a complex chain of deals among
offshore intermediaries. Czech buyers were now discussing direct
contracts with Tatneft <TATN3.MM> and other suppliers, he added.
"The situation became extremely politicised," Tokarev said.
The first to approach Transneft after supplies to the Czech
Republic were cut, he said, was the U.S. embassy in Russia. Next
came the British embassy.
"The last people to approach me were the Czechs! And they
understood, more or less, how the problems arose," he added.
Tokarev said Tatneft, a mid-sized oil firm based in the
Russian republic of Tatarstan, had offered to sell its oil to
the Czech Republic through direct contracts before the supply
disruption, but its offer had been rejected.
Russian companies now have the size and expertise to handle
their own international sales, Tokarev said.
He said his own company -- which is expanding pipeline
capacity to accommodate Russian oil majors' plans to boost
production -- had no say over where this oil would be delivered.
"I don't own any oil. I don't decide whether I want to sell
to somebody, or not to sell to somebody."
Large traders, however, still had a role to play in
delivering Russian oil to market, Tokarev said, citing Vitol,
Gunvor and Glencore as examples.
"It's not just about direct contracts with Europe. There's
Singapore, Australia, other regions. There, you need real
traders with their own fleet, their own serious financial
resources," he said.
"They carry the right to exist, because they help the major
companies."
(Additional reporting by Michael Stott, Dmitry Zhdannikov,
Tanya Mosolova, Amie Ferris-Rotman and Katya Golubkova, editing
by Anthony Barker)
