Russian Railways loses struggle for oil transportation

President of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin has proposed the idea of ​​creating a single government agency, which would supervise the work of all types of transport, including pipelines. According to the Kommersant’s information, the initiative of the monopoly’s head is in the first place connected with the reluctance of the Russian Railways to lose rail route to the Komsomolsk refinery of Rosneft because of the construction of a bend from the East Siberia - Pacific Ocean pipeline (ESPO). Analysts estimate the Russian Railways’ shortfall in income from this at least at 35 billion rubles per year, and rail operators – at 10 billion rubles.

Yesterday, the head of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin proposed to create a single state body that would coordinate transport policy, powers of which would apply to pipeline transport too. Now the Ministry of Energy is in charge of pipelines and the Ministry of Transport - of other modes of transport. According to Mr. Yakunin, it will coordinate government spending on transportation infrastructure. The idea of ​​creating a single Ministry, under the control of which can get multiple industries - transport, communications and even power - was discussed in 2012 and before. In 2004, Vladimir Putin signed a decree on a single Ministry of transport and communications, but none of these initiatives was implemented.