Under thorough control

“Safe operation of seaports is under supervision of RF Transport Minister Igor Levitin and the RF State Duma Committee for Transport and Communications,” Vladimir Popov, deputy head of the Federal Service for Transport Supervision (RosTransNadzor) said yesterday in St. PetersburgRosTransNadzor. The meeting was dedicated to compliance with licensing terms and requirements when handling hazardous cargo in Russia’s seaports as well as to the problem of varying interpretations of Russian legislation related to prevention of oil spills by business and regulatory authorities. Ship owners and stevedores of the Big Port of St. Petersburg were invited to participate in the discussion. when starting a meeting initiated by

These issues are “out of order in all regions of the country”, Popov said. In support of his words he told about negative results revealed by a comprehensive inspection of companies handling hazardous cargo in the port of Novorossiysk state laws should befully conformed to. (completed January 31). “However, no liberalization of supervisory activities is possible,” Popov added. The

RosTransNadzor is seriously concerned about the fact that “requirements of the RF Government Decree No 544 allowing shore-to-ship handling of oil products only at a berth fitted with a pipeline linked directly with an oil tank farm are not fulfilled by a number of operators of the Big Port of St. Petersburg”. No measures to fit the berths according to the requirements were undertaken by the berth operators.

The violations revealed in the course of inspection carried out by RosTransNadzor and RorMorRechFlot in July 2008 have not been eliminated yet. As of today, 13 of 21 companies operating in the port have not corrected OSR plans thus they have no their own ERT or contracts for emergency response alert with duly certified (in CCC) organizations.

According to the decision made at the meeting, North-West Department of GosMorRechNadzor is to continue its work to reveal and eliminate violations of the related laws and licensing requirements.

North-West Department of GosMorRechNadzor was ordered to file the materials on violations revealed to St. Petersburg Transport Prosecutor for further bringing of the guilty officials to responsibility and for canceling of licenses.

Peotr Parinov, Harbour Master of the Big Port of St. Petersburg, was ordered to suspend acceptance and consideration of applications for movement of oil carriers from companies working at the berths which do not meet the corresponding requirements.

According to Vladimir Popov, the issue of ecological safety is under personal supervision of RF Transportation Minister Igor Levitin and the RF State Duma Committee for Transport and Communications.

According to Andrei Khaustov, head of GosMorSpasSluzhba, violations of OSR plans were revealed in 20 organizations of St. Petersburg port in summer. Only three of 20 organizations (Petroprom, In-Tranzit and POT) provided RorMorRechFlot with information on elimination of the revealed violations.

From March 1, 2009m Harbour Master of St. Petersburg port introduces new e-from of application for bunkering. The database created on the basis of applications will be available for customs and tax authorities as well as for the prosecutor’s office.

According to Aleksei Belov, Vice-President of the Association of Sea Commercial Ports, Federal Antimonopoly Service considered RorMorRechFlot requirement of obligatory certification in CCC for ERT operating in seaports and found violations of antimonopoly legislation.

F.A.Kehiopulo, Transport Prosecutor of St. Petersburg said the “decision of the Transport Ministry is incorrect”. The issue is now to be considered by the Transport Prosecutor’s office of the North-West region. In case of a positive decision (consideration is to take at least one month) the issue will be handed over to the RF Prosecutor-General’s Office, which is to take a decision in respect to the competence of the Ministry’s activities.