Russian Railways chief Gennady Fadeyev said here Thursday that he expects the volume of the oil transported to China via rail to increase.

Russia's railways would be able to transport 30 million tons of oil annually to China from the eastern Siberia region if the current infrastructure was repaired, said Fadeyev during an exclusive interview with Xinhua.

He confirmed that the Luk Oil of Russia company had replaced the Yukos company as China's oil supplier.

"Luk plans to transport 160,000 tons of oil to China from November to December on a trial basis, 60,000 tons in November and100,000 tons in December."

He said even taking into account the transportation fees, the prices for the oil delivered via railway will remain competitive compared with the oil exported to China through other channels.

"What we want is to increase the transportation volume instead of keeping a fixed transportation. If the amount reached 30 million tons, we will consider lowering the transportation price," said Fadeyev. He said he did not think that the current railway transportation fee is too high.

Source: Xinhua