Russian May oil exports hit all-time high

MOSCOW, June 2 (Reuters) Russia's oil production edged up in May while pipeline exports hit an all-time high as oil firms rushed to evacuate their output ahead of a massive hike in export duties in June, Energy Ministry data showed on Friday.

Russia's pipeline monopoly Transneft boosted loadings by 370,000 barrels per day in May versus April to 4.76 million bpd. The previous monthly record was registered in May last year, when exports stood at 4.61 million bpd.

''When the government tells you it will slap an export duty of 0 per tonne from next month, people will obviously try to use all capacities to export more now to save some money,'' said a trader with a major Russian company.

Russia imposed a record-high duty on crude oil exports of 9.8 per tonne from June following a new rise in global prices over the past two months, up from the previous 6.4 per tonne.

The data showed that, although exports hit a record high, there was still spare capacity at the Black Sea ports of Novorossiisk, Yuzhny and Odessa, Lithuania's Baltic Sea port of Butinge and the Druzhba pipeline to central Europe.

The aggregate spare capacity at those ports was around 400,000 bpd, which could in theory allow Transneft to increase shipments further to around 5.15 million bpd.

May production stood at 40.719 million tonnes, or 9.63 million bpd, up from 9.60 million bpd in April. After a deep winter slump, the new figure was still slightly short of December's post-Soviet high of 9.65 million.

May production was 3.2 percent higher than in May 2005, while in January-May it was 2.4 percent higher year-on-year, a rise from 2.2 percent in the first four months of 2006.

ROSNEFT LEADS GROWTH The Energy Ministry last month confirmed its 2006 oil production forecast of 9.68 million bpd, which would be a 2.6 percent increase from 9.44 million bpd in 2005.

Production growth slowed to 2.5 percent in 2005 from 9 percent in 2004 and a record 11 percent in 2003.

In May, the strongest addition to production for another consecutive month came from state oil firm Rosneft, which is enjoying higher output at the former key Siberian unit of stricken oil major YUKOS, Yugansk.

Russia's No. 3 oil producer, Rosneft, which wants to raise over billion in Russia's biggest initial public offering this summer, increased production by 0.8 percent in April and by 9.4 percent from May 2005.

Russia's No. 1 oil firm LUKOIL also showed strong month-on-month growth of 0.6 percent and an annual increase of 2.8 percent. No. 4 producer Surgutneftegas boosted production by 0.3 and 3.6 percent respectively.

But No. 2 firm TNK-BP, half-owned by BP Plc, showed modest or no growth at all, as did gas monopoly Gazprom's oil unit Sibneft and oil venture Slavneft.

YUKOS, which is still banned from investing money in production as part of a tax investigation, lost a tenth of its output over the past year.

LUKOIL and TNK-BP also enjoyed much larger exports in May compared with April as both firms actively used Odessa and Yuzhny, which often remain idle as they offer less attractive economics than other ports.

REUTERS MP ND1750