On April 16, the conference ‘Russian International Register of Vessels: practice, problems and perspectives’ took place in St. Petersburg. It was dedicated to the issues of the Russian International Register of Vessels, the problems and perspectives of Russia’s commercial fleet revival, aspects of shipbuilding, classification, insurance, taxation and customs clearance of vessels flying the flag of the Russian Federation

The North-West is likely to become one of the most fast-developing regions in Russia in terms of cargo transportation growth. In particular, experts say railway transportation to the North-Western port is to grow by almost 2.5 times to 175.3 million tonnes by 2015

This week a joint meeting of the Committee for National Maritime Policy and the Committee for Natural Monopolies (under the Council of Federations) has been held in St. Petersburg. Its major issue was the approval of seaport limits which became more complicated after the Law on Seaports of the Russian Federation came into effect. Geographical coordinates are not enough for borders approval today. Cadastral plans are required as well as the layouts of territorial planning for different types of transport on both federal and regional levels. To avoid the process delay it was decided to approve the limits stage by stage having started from the outer limits of the existing ports

LUKOIL plans active development of oil product and crude export via its own facilities in the Kola Bay. In June the company will start oil shipment from its new terminal Varandei, the capacity of which is to reach 12 million tonnes per year. By 2010 LUKOIL plans to stop using the Belokamenka facility and to set its own floating storage facility. Besides, the company plans to build an 8 - mln tonne floating terminal in Murmansk region for refining of Varandei crude

Sulphur reduction was under discussion this week at the 57th session of the IMO's Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 57) meeting in London. None of the proposals could fully satisfy the participants though they were especially interested in two options. According to one of the options the sulphur cap for fuel used in SECAs is to be 1.00% from early in 2010, dropping to 0.10% in 2015, and for the global sulphur cap to be reduced to 0.50% from 2018. The second proposal was that the global sulphur cap should be further lowered from 3.00% in 2012 to 1.50% in 2016. The final decision is to be taken by IMO this year

Finnish railway (VR Group) has announced its results of 2007. The company’s profit and turnover are growing against the background of unprecedented fall of turnover with Russia. A 20-percent fall should be attributed first of all to a decrease of round timber transportation. Besides, railway transit fell despite the increase of general transit cargo transportation in the ports of Finland

Summer navigation 2008 starts at the United Deepwater System from the Rostov-on-Don – Kochetkovsky hydraulic complex. Inland waterways are being prepared for summer navigation with repair works at certain complexes. Trial drawing of bridges started more than a week ago in St. Petersburg with official opening of Neva navigation scheduled for April 10. Last year, transportation by inland waterways grew by 9.5%. The results of the current year will depend on a number of factors including water level and dredging at different sections of inland waterways

By 2009, Russian International Register of Vessels is to accept the ships of Sovcomflot, Russia’s largest shipping company. It is to become a significant step towards the Register’s development in terms of both tonnage and quality of vessels. In general, the Register’s development is not very active today as its operating principles have not been worked out yet. Last year, only 2 of 16 newly built transport vessels were registered under Russian flag, while the rest ships were registered under ‘convenient’ flags. However, the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation hopes to attract more vessels in future in order to improve the competitiveness of the Russian fleet at the world market

Gazprom Neft OJSC plans active development of its bunkering business. In view of its plans the company acquired a number of assets in the port of Primorsk. Gazprom Neft started this business only in the end of the previous year but it plans to cover 30% of Russia’s bunkering market by the end of 2010. Primorsk assets will enable the company to raise its sales to 300,000 tonnes per year. Experts say the interest of vertically integrated companies in bunkering market is a general trend as they try to deliver their product to the end user with overall control of the sales chain

The “heart” of any vessel is the engine. Its quality influences efficiency and duration of vessel operation without downtime caused by repair of important components. Availability of up-to-date components is a factor extremely significant for shipbuilding and navigation in Russia and it is important to choose well-known time-tested brands. Valentin Romanov, Caterpillar manager on development of ship engines sales in Russia and the CIS tells PortNews IAA about the activities of Caterpillar Marine Power Systems