Russia's Novorossiisk Commercial Sea Port Group (NCSP) said it has signed an agreement with state trader United Grain Company to build a vegetable oils facility at the Black Sea port with capacity to store and ship up to 2 million tons a year.

NCSP, the largest single outlet for Russian energy and commodity exports, said on Thursday the high-tech terminal, with total investment of around 1.5 billion roubles ($50 million), is scheduled for launch in 2015-16.

"We are always looking to increase our cargo handling volumes... United Grain Company is prepared to guarantee significant annual volumes of seed oils for the new terminal," NCSP Chief Executive Rado Antolovic said in a statement.

"This would be a huge capacity," the chief executive of the SovEcon consultancy, Andrei Sizov, said.

Russia exported 1.43 million tons of sunflower oil between October 2011 and September 2012.

Apart from Novorossiisk port on the Black Sea, NCSP also manages the Baltic Sea port of Primorsk, a major oil and oil products outlet in the north. (Reuters)