RBK: 9 thousand railroad cars with oil cargo accumulated on the Russian Railways network – Rosbalt

By the end of December 2021, the average daily number of loaded oil and petrol tanks abandoned on the Russian Railways network reached 9 thousand and continues to grow. This is the maximum in five years, RBC reports, citing sources close to the railway operators.

According to the Union of Railway Transport Operators, as of December 27, 1,125 trains were abandoned on the Russian Railways network – almost 79,000 wagons with all cargo. ANDExecutive Director of SOZHT Alexey Druzhinin noted that that one of the reasons for the accumulation of such a number of wagons was the indexation of freight tariffs by Russian Railways by 6.8% from 2022. “Now there is a large volume of cargo presentation for the purpose of export until January 1,” he explained.

More than 3,000 tanks have been left without movement at Transoil, a company spokesman told RBC. “For example, near Komsomolsk-on-Amur, the cargo costs several days at a temperature of minus 45 degrees. About 40% of our abandoned fleet with cargo goes to the ports of the North-West, the rest of the cargo is waiting in the Far East, ”he said.

This problem has a domino effect: each tank with frozen cargo becomes the cause of freezing of the wagons going for unloading, explains the representative of Transoil.

Earlier on Wednesday, it became known that Russian Railways were forced to impose restrictions on the loading of oil cargo due to congestion in ports. “Loading of oil and oil products has already exceeded last year’s volumes. Russian Railways are ready to accept more, however, due to congestion in ports, they are forced to impose restrictions on loading, ”the monopolist said in a statement.

Russian Railways noted that, despite the improvement in the situation with the unloading of oil cargo in ports, a number of acute problems remain. At the same time, weather conditions complicated the work of all seaports: in the North-West, South and Far East.