This weekend, Yukos announced it would halt oil shipments to China National Petroleum Corp., which Yukos was to supply about 1 million metric tons of oil to this year. However, the company will continue oil shipments to Sinopec, and is expected to supply about 750,000 metric tons of oil to the company this year.
The Yukos board's decision to halt some of its exports was because of financial difficulties in paying for transportation and customs expenses.
"Under these circumstances, in particular those related to our bank accounts, we were forced to take this measure," a company spokesman told RIA Novosti. However, the company does not intend to halt oil exports completely, the spokesman said. However, the spokesman did not specify by how many metric tons Yukos had stopped exporting.
On Friday, oil prices rose: Brent crude was up 4.17%, to $42.45 per barrel in November futures in London, October's contracts for WTI oil rose 3.90% to $45.59 per barrel in New York.
The Yukos affair has been influencing world oil prices recently. However, the decision to halt shipments to China had little influence the dynamism of oil futures that had appreciated dramatically for different reasons.
"Oil is appreciating against the background of the U.S. declining fuel reserves and a drop in oil production and refining in the Gulf of Mexico caused by the hurricane," Tatyana Kobrina, an expert at Olma, told RIA Novosti. She said Yukos' decision is not significant for the oil market, at least in the short term. "For a company like Yukos, exports to China are not that significant."
Dmitry Mangilev, an expert with Prospekt, said Yukos' decision was important psychologically, while Zurich Capital Management's Andrei Litvin described the news as "a new factor of support for oil prices."
Experts said that Yukos' decision was political. They suggested that the company would resume oil exports to China, as it would find it difficult to find an alternative consumer.
"Exports will be resumed," said Mr. Litvin. "Oil will most likely be supplied by Yukos. This is a positional game."
