CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
. j
eptember5
MEMORANDUM FOR: Ambassador Deane Hinton
Office of the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs Department of. State
Soviet Oil Exports
i
Attached is information you requested on Soviet oil exports and the quality of Soviet crude oil. Soviet exports to the Free Woria in4 wereundred thousanday. almost all to Western Europe. The Soviet's have little potential to increase exports above this level; COnseauently, any Soviet exports to the US would be at the oxuense of traditional customers in Western Europe. The quality of Soviet crude is comparable to Iranian crude which sells forarrel cif Western Europe.
Director Economic Research
CIA HISTORICAL REVIEW PROGRAM RELEASE AS9
lib:
From available US statistics, Soviet exports of crude oil to the US amounted toillion barrels,2 andillion No data are available on the quality of Soviet oil imported or where tho oil was processed in the US.
Most of the crude'oil exported from the USSR in recent .years has come from the large older fieldsRomashkino, Mukhanovo, Tuymazyin tho Urals-Volga region. Theae crudes are similar in quality to light and medium crude oils from Saudi Arabia and Iran. They havo API gravities ranging fromtoand generally%% sulfur and can readily be processed in refinerieshandle Middle East oil. During theears, crude oil from West Siberiaiiibstly low-sulfur oil from the giant Samotlor fieldhas bcon piped to the Urals-Volga region and blended with Urals-Volga crudes for export. omparison of the quality of Soviet crudes mentioned above with selected ones from the Middle.East, Venezuela, and the US is shown in the attached table. .
- prices for Soviet crude oil delivered to
Western Europe4 rangeder barrel
and were competitive with prices of Middle East oil delivered
to the same market. In general, Soviet prices rose gradually
from early in the year to the latter part of the year.
. prices for Soviet oil delivered to selected
West European countries are as follows:
arrel
arrel
/
arrel
axrel'
rice)
4. prices of Saudi Arabian and Iranian crude oils delivered to Western Europe rose steadily. . prices per barrel for Saudia Arabian and Iranian,crudo oils dclivered.:to Italy and West Germany are shown below:.
"
1st Quarter" 2nd Quarter 3rd Quarter
Italy
Saudi Arabian
Iranian
West Germany
Saudi
Iranian
. prices of Saudi Arabian and Iranian crude oils delivered to the US4barrelberrel, respectively. Approximately the sane price level has been maintained for these crudeshen the USSR first began exporting oil price discounting was prevalent to.gain access to world markets, but there have been no reports of any.Soviet discounts for oil exported to the West in recent years.
Through August5 no Soviet crude oil was delivered to the US.
For the periodhe USSRillion barrels of petroleum products to the OSotal Customs valueillion, as shown below: .
ThousandValue
ollars)
Fuel oil
Fuel oil
The. (Free alongside ship) prices for the Soviet products delivered to the US are:
Naphthas' bl
Fuel oil" bbl
Fuel oil bbl
(all of the above prices include an import dutybl)
The avecage US import price for each of the products
shown'above during5 is:
Naphtha^
Fuel Oil
Fuel oil
(The import tariff for these products from Free World countriesbbl.)
a
In general, the quality of Soviet foel oilsthe US' and to other western, countries is comparablequality of fuel oils from western refineries. MostSoviet fuel oils exported to the West have a. sulfurofr less and meet US
SOURCE: S Generalommodity by Country, US Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census,6
Original document.
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