The three largest operators of the oil tanker fleet – Transoil, Neftetransservice and RailGO – have purchased 22,000 tank cars, which were previously leased from Atlanta and Brunswick Rail. Now tanks are in short supply, and with the increase in the flow of oil products to the east, which will inevitably follow the introduction of the EU embargo on February 5, demand will increase further. At the same time, it is unprofitable to order new tanks now, analysts say, since it is not clear how the export of petroleum products will be built in the future.
Atlant, the tenth largest operator according to the INFOLine Rail Russia TOP rating, and Brunswick Rail, one of the largest operating leasing companies in the field of railway transport, sold a total of about 20,000 tank cars to specialized operators who previously rented them – Neftetransservice (NTS), Transoil and RailGO. Sources in Atlanta, Brunswick, NTS and Transoil confirmed the deal. According to Kommersant’s information, Transoil and RailGO bought about 8,000 tank cars each, and NTS bought about 6,000.
A source familiar with the situation in Atlanta told Kommersant that Atlant had left the oil-loading segment: the cars were on long-term lease from buyers.
“They exercised their priority right to buy,” he added. RailGO confirmed the deal. “Before the transaction was implemented, the fleet of wagons was already operated by our company under a long-term lease agreement and at the moment continues to work at the same landfills,” they said. “The cargo base has not changed, there has been only a change of ownership.”
Atlant LLC is 100% owned by Transfin-M, which was bought by Alexey Taicher and partners from NPF Blagosostoyanie in 2019 (see Kommersant dated November 8, 2019). Brunswick Rail, in turn, has been owned by JSC Vector Rail since the end of 2021, which is also co-owned by Mr. Teicher. For nine months of 2022, Atlant ranked third in the Russian Federation in terms of the number of railcars owned. The buyers are the three largest operators of the oil tanker fleet in Russia: Transoil operated 54 thousand tank cars in the first nine months of 2022, NTS – 36.4 thousand, RailGO – 24.2 thousand, according to INFOLine data.
According to the results of 2022, transportation of oil cargoes on the networks amounted to 216 million tons, which is 0.7% less than a year earlier, in January – 18.5 million tons (minus 4.9%).
From February 5, an embargo on the import of Russian oil products to the EU countries comes into force, on the eve of which oil companies feared a deterioration in the situation with loading in the east direction, the cargo flow on which will increase sharply (see Kommersant of January 30). At the same time, JSC Russian Railways notes that the loading of oil products for destination on the roads of the Eastern landfill in January amounted to 2.3 million tons, which is 2.1% more than a year earlier, and loading is also growing for export (by 4.8%), and to the domestic market (by 0.8%), but the terminals of the Far East and the south do not meet the standards for unloading.
The head of Infoline-Analytics, Mikhail Burmistrov, notes that now there is an acute shortage of oil and gasoline tanks. The fleet of tanks involved in transportation in December 2022 amounted to a record 172.1 thousand units, or 92.3% of the total fleet. He explains that the tank farm at most refineries is limited and tanks are often used as storage on wheels so as not to change the refinery’s production program when demand decreases (oil products will also be stored in terminal tanks or on tankers). At the same time, in the current situation, while new routes for the export of petroleum products have not been built under the sanctions, many market participants consider it risky to order new tanks. For operating leasing companies in the current situation, according to Mr. Burmistrov, it is reasonable to leave the fleet of oil tankers and invest in more predictable segments of the rolling stock market.
