World Bunkering > News > Autumn 2009 > News and views

Olga Bogacheva

Russian Forum

The second Russian Forum, “Current Trends and Highlights in Russian Bunkering Market”, was held in St Petersburg on 25-26 June 2009, organised by the Russian Association of Marine and River Bunker Suppliers.

Participants and managers unanimously agreed that the second forum appeared to be even more successful than last year’s, despite the impact of the world economic crisis.

About 100 delegates, mostly representing bunkering companies from different Russian regions, Europe and Singapore attended the Forum. Company managers of related industries – insurance, finance, oil, legal firms, equipment suppliers etc – also attended. Industry professionals had a lot of questions for government organisations who were attending as guests of the forum, including FGUP “Rosmorport”, Customs, Federal Marine and River Transport Agency and the Federal Antimonopoly Service.

The Association president, Vitaly Kovalev, mentioned in his introductory speech that the year between the first and the second Russian bunkering forums was extremely unfavourable for the industry. It consisted of two uneven parts – before and after October 2008.

A year ago experts were confident in predicting accelerated development of the market, with companies projected to expand activities, improve infrastructure, and update the fleet. However, Mr Kovalev said, the existing data shows a fall of 28-30% in total turnover at Russian ports. He also highlighted the bunkering market statistics for the first four months of 2009.

He concluded that the current forecast is unreliable, current trends are definitely negative, and the bunkering community itself is solely responsible for the industry condition at the moment of stabilisation.

Participants were particularly interested in the speeches devoted to the implementation of Annex 21 MARPOL. It is obvious to both business and the authority that Russia must fulfil its commitments, although it is clear that the broad programme cannot be implemented in the short term. In particular, one of the speakers, Arseniy Brykin, industrial development expert for the State Duma, explained that the development strategy for the shipping industry in Russia until 2020 includes certain support measures for transport companies signing contracts with domestic shipping yards.

Amongst other measures, the strategy will allow for partial reimbursement of leasing payments to Russian leasing. It is planned to spend 670 million roubles for these purposes during 2010-2020. One hundred and ninety million roubles have been allotted for the current year; however, demand was well below this amount, Brykin said. The main reason for this is that bunkering companies and other potential program participants had inadequate information about the strategy. Other issues discussed at the Forum included safety, fuel and service quality under growing competition, regional markets, insurance problems, payment delays etc.

Forum participants agreed that the meetings in St Petersburg during the White Nights season had become a wonderful tradition and were looking forward to meeting again in a year.

Several companies sponsored the Forum: Gaspromneft Marine Bunker, LUKOIL-bunker, Damen Shipyards, Tallinn Shipyard, InnospecLimited, Infotech Flex.

Russian Association AGM

The general meeting of the Russian Association of Marine and River Bunker Suppliers was held on 24 June 2009.

Amongst other things, the transformation of the Association into a self-regulated organisation (SRO) was discussed. The Law on SROs in the Russian Federation entered into force in 2007. It aims to ensure the drastic reform of business regulation and to reduce government participation in this process. Operating as an SRO will substitute licensing and become compulsory in certain industries.

Vladimir Sergeev, chairman of the board, has been appointed to represent the Association in Moscow government organisations full-time.

Participants at the meeting unanimously agreed that the Russian Association of Marine and River Bunker Suppliers should apply for associate membership of the Association of Shipping Companies. This would improve efficiency in solving industry problems. The Association of Shipping Companies was established in February 2004. At present it has 50 members, including leading Russian shipping companies. Members of the Association provide about 70% of total oil and oil products transhipment, 90% of river transportation services and over 50% of bulk transportation services.

The meeting also considered and made decisions on current organisational expenses.

IMO port audit this autumn

A commission from the International Marine Organization (IMO) will perform an audit of government bodies and private companies in two Russian ports, St Petersburg and Novorossiysk, for compliance with the international conventions, codes and other IMO standards. The audit will take place during the period from 25 September to 7 November.

Export location changes

“In a year’s time, Russian heavy oil will no longer be exported through Estonian ports,” said Sergey Ivanov, vice-premier of the Russian government during his visit to Ust-Luga port in the Leningrad Region. According to Ivanov, the first stage of the Ust-Luga heavy oil transloading terminal will begin operations at the end of 2009, thus causing a drop in export through Estonian ports. “Up to now there were no ports in Russia capable of transferring heavy fuel oil. The first tankers carrying fuel oil will arrive in Ust-Luga.

This means we will decrease railroad supplies of our heavy oil to Estonia. In a year all heavy fuel oil supplies to Estonian ports will be stopped,” Sergey Ivanov said. Currently, some 87% of Russian export supplies are transloaded through Russian ports, while 13% are sent through foreign ports. At the end of the previous century 75% of Russian export supplies were transloaded in foreign ports. Heavy fuel oil is expected to tranship via the bulk cargo terminal.

Gaspromneft Marine Bunker relaunches Novorossiysk service

Gaspromneft Marine Bunker began bunkering in Novorossiysk port at the end of June, having already established operations in St Petersburg, Vladivostok, and Nahodka ports. The company expects to increase sales up to 10,000 tonnes monthly and occupy 15% of the local market. The number of fuel suppliers in the port has now reached eight, leading to increased competition.

The company had made an attempt to start operations in Novorossiysk in August 2008 but had to stop after supplying a single batch of 6,000 tonnes of HSFO from Shesharis terminal due to problems with permission for the motor transport of oil products. Gaspromneft Marine Bunker has now made an agreement with the local player, Novorossiyskaya Fuel Company (NTK), for transhipment and delivery of oil products to the port, with subsequent supply from ASPTR jetty. NTK supplies fuel from its own vessels, Don, Shipka and Hilda.

Gaspromneft Marine Bunker delivers fuel to Novorossiysk by tank-trucks from the Temp and Yuzhno-promyshlennaya Company bulk plant petroleum depots or by tankers from Kavkaz port with an average ratio 50:50.

Neftyanik-1 enters service in Bulgaria

Lukoil Bulgaria Bunker Ltd has put Neftyanik-1, a river bunkering vessel with a capacity of 250 tonness, into service in Rusa port, Bulgaria. The vessel was built in 1994 and was previously in service on the Volga.

Lukoil Bulgaria Bunker, founded in 2008, provides bunkering services in Burgas, Varna (Rossinetz) and in Danube river ports. The company began operations on a small scale, but grew rapidly after the Belona, a 3,700 tonnes bunkering tanker, was put into service. Thirty thousand tonnes of fuel were supplied in the final quarter of 2008. The company’s programme includes reconstruction of the transhipment facility to ensure supplies of fuel of different quality. It will allow Lukoil to supply the company’s own products manufactured at Burgas and Odessky refineries, as well as other oil products bought on the market.

Transit-DV enters Kamchatka joint venture

Transit-DV Group is to establish the Severo-Vostochnoye Shipping Company in partnership with the Kamchatka regional government. The decision was taken during a meeting looking at the strategic partnership agreement between the Kamchatsky regional government and Transit-DV Group, the leading logistics operator in the Northern Territories of Russia.

This partnership agreement stipulates the establishment of a shipping company in the Kamchatka region. As part of the agreement, Transit-DV Group’s fleet of nine vessels, total tonnage 100,000 tonnes, will be registered in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The project aims to develop the transport infrastructure in the region, to improve investment potential, to provide quality logistics, and to improve transport accessibility in the region.

The government of the Kamchatka region expressed its intention to reduce the property tax down to 1.1% for the fleet in its new tax policies for 2010-2012.

LUKOIL opens “water-shore” fuel station

Lukoil has opened a new dual-purpose fuel station. The station is located at the Vyborgskaya Embankment in St Petersburg and provides fuel to both motor vehicles and small vessels on the Neva River. The station is designed to fill about 500 clients daily, including 60 small vessels. According to safety regulations only one vessel may be filled at a time during daylight hours only. A company spokesman assured that a powerboat on duty is ready to install oil retention barriers and collect petrol spills with absorbents from the water surface immediately in case of accidental leakage.

Agreement on fishing fleet bunkering

Rosneft and Rosrybolovstvo of the Federal Fishery Agency, have concluded a Cooperation Agreement on the provision of bunkering services for the fishing fleet. According to the agreement, signed by Sergey Bogdanchikov of Rosneft and Andrey Kriniy, head of Rosrybolovstvo, Rosneft is to prepare a proposal for comprehensive services for the organisation of fishing fleet bunkering at marine terminals. This agreement is aimed at implementing the “concept for development of fishing industry in Russian Federation during the period up to 2020”.

Rosneft expects cooperation with the Federal Agency will improve the company’s position on the bunkering market and will make a significant contribution in the development of the Russian fishing industry which is important for many regions and for the country as a whole.