Kozmino is the terminus port of the Eastern Siberia to Pacific Ocean (ESPO) oil pipeline that is located in the Far Eastern part of Russia. In the first half of 2013, oil shipments through this port have risen by 39.5 percent, and they are expected to increase at the same rate in the months to come. Thanks to this positive dynamic, the total oil shipment volume went up to 10.6 million tons.

On average, the port can handle export amounts that range between 1.6 million tons and 1.9 million tons. With the recent launch of the second phase of the ESPO pipeline project, it is possible to transport oil by land, just as easily as it is by rails. Russia’s capacity to transport oil to the inland countries of the Asian Pacific region has been effectively expanded.

The most attractive destination for Russian oil exports is Japan, and the greatest volume of the oil is in fact delivered to that country. Japan accounts for 35.5 percent of the oil sent through Kozmino, a percentage that translates to 3.8 million tons. The second country on this list is China, which gets 23.6 percent of the oil exports. As such, 2.5 million tons go to China. The third country where oil is exported to in large quantities is South Korea, which takes an 11.4-percent share of total exports. That volume is approximately 1.2 million tons. Exports to the Philippines closely follow, with total shipments’ amounting to 8.3 percent of the oil supplied. Right behind the Philippines are the United States and Malaysia, which account for 5.7 percent and 4.5 percent of the export volume respectively. The countries to which oil is exported in significantly smaller quantities are Thailand, New Zealand, Taiwan, and Indonesia. The respective percentage shares for these countries are 2.3 percent, one percent, 0.9 percent, and 0.8 percent.

In the month of June, the first one-hundred-thousand-ton load of Russian oil was transported to New Zealand from Kozmino. The total volume of oil shipped in the first half of this year is almost 9.1 million tons. For railroad transportation, the volume shipped was only 1.56 million tons. That oil is transferred to the Amur region from Skovorodino.

In the months to come, analysts predict that the port will have to handle almost 1.9 million tons of oil. According to plans, the volume of oil that the port will receive via the ESPO II pipeline is 1.65 million tons. Another 250,000 tons will be shipped to Kozmino by rail. Overall, the Kozmino oil port does have a maximum capacity of around 20 million tons per year. This large processing volume has been made attainable by the expansion of the ESPO pipeline. In line with today’s forecast, by the end of this year, the port will have handled 21 million tons of oil.