Poti oil terminal owner confirms Russian interest

The owners of the Poti oil terminal have confirmed a Russian oil company was interested in using the terminal.

Oil product trader and co-owner of Poti oil terminal located on the Black Sea coast of Georgia, Petrocas Energy Group today confirmed Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft were interested in the site.

The confirmation comes one day after Rosneft announced it was interested in purchasing the terminal.

Petrocas Energy Group said that the two companies agreed Rosneft would transport oil products to Armenia via Georgia.

"Petrocas Energy Group’s goal is to use the transport potential of Georgia effectively. This coincides with the objective of Georgia’s Government to increase freight turnover by using the railway routes,” read the Petrocas Energy Group statement.

"The business cooperation between Petrocas Energy Group and Rosneft will increase the import of oil product to the Georgian market that increases competition locally.”

Speaking to Georgian journalists yesterday, Rosneft deputy CEO Mikhail Leontyev said there were no current ongoing negotiations with the Georgian side in terms of purchasing the terminal.

Rosneft is the largest publicly traded oil company in the world where 69.5% of the company’s shares belong to the Russian state and 19.75% to BP. The rest of the shares are publicly traded.

Rosneft activities include hydrocarbon exploration and production, upstream offshore projects, hydrocarbon refining, crude oil, gas and product marketing in Russia and abroad.

Poti port is operated by Channel Energy, an oil terminal operator and member of Petrocas Energy Group. Channel Energy is one of the owners of Poti Terminal Holding (32.67%).