"The agreement signed with Yukos was fulfilled until October 1," he said. "According to my information, there will be a short interval until October 20, and then everything will resume as it was before October 1."
Yukos said that at the end of September it would temporarily suspend a portion of its exports to China, about 1 million metric tons, until the end of 2004.
"This suspension is due to Yukos's inability to continue pre-financing of exports to China National Petroleum Corporation [CNPC]," Yukos said.
CNPC officially stated that it had received a notice from Yukos about the suspension of oil exports.
CNPC's statement said that Yukos was obligated to export 3.86 million metric tons to CNPC this year and that currently, Yukos had only exported 2.84 million metric tons. Therefore, CNPC may receive 1 million metric tons less this year.
Deputy Minister of Industry and Energy Ivan Materov told journalists that Russian companies would make up for the shortage of Yukos exports to China.
"Of course, China is worried," he said, "just as the Slovaks who receive oil from Yukos are. Our companies will compensate for the shortage of the Yukos oil exports to China, and in general, I think that this situation will be resolved positively." Mr. Materov did not specify what Russian companies would export oil to China.
LUKoil Vice President Leonid Fedun told journalists that exports to China were unprofitable for LUKoil because of the high transportation and export costs. Another large oil producer in Russia, Surgutneftegaz, also does not intend to supply oil to China. Surgutneftegaz Deputy General Director Sergei Fedorov said that Surgutneftegaz did not plan to alter its oil exports in the immediate future.
