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Construction work has begun on the development of an oil-loading terminal near the Russian town of Vistino, on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland, from where cargoes of heavy fuel oil will be transported.

North-West Alliance LLC, the company which won the tender to build the new facility, has commenced the first construction phase of Marine Oil Terminal Vistino having obtained permission from the Kingisepp district Administration to begin development work.

Upon completion of the first phase of the project - which is scheduled to take around 18 months - the terminal is expected to have an annual capacity of between 3-4 million tonnes of oil and oil products.

The capacity will be increased later to 7 million tonnes per year, with further expansion expected to boost capacity to 10 million tonnes. If necessary it may even be raised to 18 million tonnes.

The Vistino complex is being constructed primarily for the loading of oil products from rail to marine transport. The tank farm capacity will be approximately 470,000 cubic meters.

According to North-West Alliance, the company already has a number of agreements with oil companies for loading at the new terminal. The volume of heavy fuel oil expected to be shipped from the terminal per year is 3 million tonnes, whilst around 4 million tonnes of crude oil and 3 million tonnes of gasoline and diesel fuel will also be shipped.

North-West Alliance is reported to already have an agreement in place with Asso-Neft and TNK-PB for the transshipment of 4 million tonnes of oil.

Due to the natural depth of the Gulf of Finland, the Vistino terminal will be able to handle tankers with a deadwight exceeding 100,000 tonnes, thus minimizing the need for extensive dredging work to be carried out.