Russia cuts oil product exports via Estonia

ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Russia will cut oil product exports via Estonia by 2 million tonnes in the next 1-2 months while raising exports via the Russian Baltic port of St Petersburg, an industry source said on Friday.

There have been protests in Moscow over Estonia's relocation of a Soviet war memorial and the oil products cut-off was likely to revive Western fears the Kremlin is using its energy might as a political weapon against ex-Soviet neighbours.

The source said that railway quotas had been cut by around two million tonnes over the period.

"Cargo owners are redirecting deliveries to the river, to St Petersburg," the source said.

Such a cut would account for the bulk of exports on the route, which carries about 25 million tonnes a year, a quarter of Russia's oil products exports.

From Estonia, the shipments of fuel oil, diesel and gasoline are re-exported to northern Europe.

Traders said earlier this week that Russia had halted deliveries of oil products to Estonia because the state rail monopoly was carrying out maintenance on the rail link to the Baltic country.

But a spokeswoman for the railways said they were wrong and the line remained open, with no disruption.

The port of St Petersburg loaded 619,000 tonnes of fuel oil and 287,000 tonnes of diesel in April.