World Bunkering > News > Summer 2011 > Russian news and views

Busy ports

Olga Bogacheva

The good news for Russia’s bunker industry last year was that the country’s ports were busier than in 2009, shrugging off the global downturn. According to an Association of Seaports spokesperson, port turnover increased by 5.9% compared to 2009, reaching 525.85 million tonnes. Cargo throughput at most ports increased, although it fell 4.7% at Novorossiysk port to 117.08 million tonnes in 2010.

In line with the general upturn in trade, St Petersburg’s 30 bunkering and 13 barging companies supplied about 1.8m tonnes, up 9% on 2009. Taking into account all of the Leningrad Oblast ports – Ust-Luga, Primorsk, and Vysotsk – the total was 2.15m tonnes, of which heavy fuel accounted for about 90% of the total volume. As usual there were seasonal fluctuations during the year, with about 200,000 tonnes delivered in July and about half that in January. As in 2009, LUKOIL-Bunker handled the largest volume, 400,000 tonnes against 370,000 tonnes in 2009. Gaspromneft Marine Bunker delivered 336,500 tonnes while Baltiiskaya Fuel Company supplied 194,000 tonnes.

Ust-Luga takes on oil port role

The first tanker carrying oil products left Ust-Luga oil terminal on January 31 as the Russian Baltic port develops into a significant oil port. The newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta quoted deputy minister Victor Olersky as saying: “Handling the first tanker in Ust-Luga, even though as a trial, means a new route for Russian oil products export has emerged. I’m sure it will take a part of freight traffic volume from Baltic ports, particularly from Estonian terminals.”

Ust-Luga is expected to become the second bulk oil port in the Finnish Gulf after Primorsk when construction of the new terminal will be completed. Projected annual capacity is about 30 million tonnes. Rosneftbunker is putting some Rb26bn (US$917m) into developing the port’s oil terminal. Some analysts expect that, once Ust-Luga is up and running at full capacity, throughput at Tallinn’s terminal may drop by 10 million tonnes. Currently about 14m tonnes are handled there but Ust-Luga will be able to handle 18 million tonnes. Rossiiskaya Gazeta noted that vice-president Sergey Ivanov said in mid-2009: “Up to now Russia had not a single port [in the region] capable of handling mazut (heavy fuel oil). Once tankers start using Ust-Luga we will reduce our railway oil deliveries to Estonia and will cancel mazut deliveries to Estonian ports completely.”

Gaspromneft expands bunkering facilities at St Petersburg

Gaspromneft is to expand the capacity of the bunkering facility it leases from diverse engineering company Kirovsky Zavod at St Petersburg by 500,000 tonnes a year , taking the total annual capacity to 1.2m tonnes of oil products. The company is not saying how much the project is costing but analysts expect the total investment to be as much as Rb1.2bn ($33m).

Originally, the facility was built jointly by Kirovsky Zavod and Transbunker but the former bought out Transbunker in 2008 and subsequently leased the terminal to Gaspromneft . Pavel Scheglov, the editor of Argus Rossiisky Mazut, noted that Gaspromneft handled about 600,000 tonnes of oil products at the Kirovsky Zavod site in 2010; 150,000-160,000 tonnes were exported, and the rest was sold through bunkering operations. “The company’s share in the Petersburg market is approximately 20%; further expansion of bunkering capacity is not feasible because the market is stable and there is no demand for additional bunkers. It seems that the second facility will be used for export purposes,” he said.

Rosneft boosts global presence

Russian bunker company Rosneft is about to set up a subsidiary in the world’s largest bunkering centre, Singapore, according to reports. The company intends expanding its international presence and to use the new Singapore company to enter the Asia-Pacific region. Rosneft, which started bunkering operations at the end of 2007, owns 14 bunkering terminals. The largest are at Archangelsk, Murmansk and Nahodka. The company supplies bunkers along the Lena and Amur rivers and delivers fuel to Sakhalin-1 and Sakhalin-2 offshore project contractors. In the middle of 2010, Rosneft and Calik (Turkey) announced the formation of a joint bunkering company to provide services in the Mediterranean and Black seas. The company sold more than 1.8m tonnes of bunkers in 2010, 50% up on the previous year and 250% above its 2008 total. Rosneft’s bunker revenue rose from $426m in 2009 to $739m last year, according to its website.

Traffic up on inland waterways

During last year’s navigation season some 115m tonnes of cargo was transported on Russia’s 100,000 km of in and waterways. This was achieved despite extremely unfavourable weather. A long dry and hot summer started in early July, the earliest onset of the drought since records began 130 years ago. Water levels were way below normal. A wide range of commodities were carried: crude oil and oil products, gas, timber, construction materials, machines, equipment, food. By region, 17.5 million tonnes of goods, up 8.7% year on year, were delivered to the Northern Territories along the Siberian rivers. Cargo traffic increased in Volga, Volga-Baltic and Moscow basins by 27%, 17% and 15%, respectively. Meanwhile passenger traffic grew in Moscow, Ob-Irtysh, Pechora and Ob basins.

Heavy fuel output up

Heavy fuel oil output grew significantly at Russian refineries last year. Production of ‘mazut’, with a 1% sulphur content, increased by 65% compared to the previous year, to 6.4m tonnes. A significant part of this product, over 2.3m tonnes, went to the St Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast bunkering market where, according to the analyst Kortes, there was 16% year-on-year growth. The main suppliers to the Petersburg market in 2010 were the Omsky, Antipinsky, Uhtinsky, Mariisky and Volgogradsky refineries.

LUKOIL-Bunker continues fleet modernisation

LUKOIL-Bunker has been upgrading its bunker barge fleet. Its Murmansk branch has put a refurbished tanker into service recently. The Desna was bought by LUKOIL-Bunker and converted into double-hull configuration to meet MARPOL requirements. The Kanonersky ship repair carried out the conversion at St Petersburg. The Desna is equipped with two heavy oil tanks, with a total capacity of 2,490 cu m, and a 410 cu m diesel tank, two 170 cu m/hour heavy oil and one 80 cu m/hour diesel pump. The Desna will soon be joined at Murmansk by another refurbished tanker, the Aginskoye, following conversion to a double-hull tanker at Kaliningrad’s Pregol dockyard. Refurbishment should be complete later this year.

A third vessel, the highly-manoeuvrable tanker CT Wexford, has been bareboat chartered by the company for three years, with options for extending the charter or buying the vessel. Meanwhile a purpose-built, MARPOL compliant double-hull vessel, the RN Taurus, started bunkering operations for LUKOIL-Bunker in Tuapse in March following a refit. It was built in Turkey in 2007 and is twin engined with two adjustable pitch propellers. It also has a 300 kW bow thruster.

The company also plans to build two support vessels by 2013 for operation at Nahodka in the Russian Far East. The vessels, one for boom-laying and the other an oil waste disposal tanker, have been designed by the St Petersburg-based Rikoshet design bureau and are being built at Zvezda shipyard at Bolshoy Kamen, Primorsky Kray.

Transit-DV’s 11,868 dwt bunker tanker

Transit-DV has brought in a large tanker for its bunkering operation at Nahodka, which started in early February. The company claimed that conversion of the 11,868 dwt Elara-DV to provide port bunkering services was part of a new approach to logistics in the bunkering sector. Transit-DV says a tanker of this size allows the company to deliver large batches of oil products to several vessels according to a previously agreed schedule. The Elara-DV carries up to 7,500 tonnes of fuel and has a pump rate of 1,000 cu m/hour.

Meanwhile, Transit-DV subsidiary, North-East Marine Shipping Company, has been busy supplying bunkers at sea at Ohotomorskaya fishing grounds. The tanker Kropotkin refuelled eight trawlers managed by Primorje-based TURNIF. North-East Marine has delivered more than 20,000 tonnes of fuel at Ohotomorskaya and Beringovomorskaya grounds since August last year.

Bunkering barges under construction for Kontur

The keel-laying of the first of four non-propelled, 6,300 dwt oil barges for bunkering company Kontur was held at the Baltiisky shipyard in February. The barges have been designed by Marine Engineering Bureau and are being built very quickly, with the first vessel scheduled for launching in the middle of July. The barges are intended to carry oil products with a flash point over 60°C, including products which need heating, in 12 tanks. Kontur will use the double-hull barges on inland waterways and coastal areas where the ice is no more than 20 cm thick. Baltiisky shipyard, part of United Industrial Company ZAO, is one of the largest Russian shipbuilding companies and is well known for construction of ice-breakers and ice-class vessels.

Severe winter weather

There were severe weather conditions during the winter of 2010/11 in the Finnish Gulf, with very low temperatures and unfavourable winds which promoted ice formation, shearing, compression and hummocking. Ice was up to 1.5 metres thick in places. Similar conditions were experienced in the winters of 1992/93 and 2002/03.

The weather meant frequent stoppages to navigation. At one point the queue for ice escorts reached 150 vessels. During the peak period 15 ice-breakers were working in the port, including the nuclear powered ice-breaker Vaigach, which arrived from Murmansk. Despite these measures the number of calls reduced significantly during this period. Even the cruise ferry Princess Maria, which shuttles between St Petersburg and Helsinki, was delayed for hours at a time.

There were other problems due to the weather conditions. On 11 March Transneft had to stop pumping through the Baltic pipeline in Primorsk. Operations were resumed a day later. The bulk carrier Aquila Companion ran into major problems at Archangelsk. According to PortNews the vessel arrived to the port with summer fuel when the temperature was minus 30°C. Its main generator and then its boiler stopped. The ship’s owner ordered winter diesel fuel from an Archangelsk bunker supplier. The crew were then able to start the emergency generator to heat the accommodation and the ship continued unloading.