Port Fleet tugs assist first FSO to anchor at outer harbor of St. Pb Port
Five tugboats of Port Fleet CJSC ("Leonid Bochkov," "Evgeny Kocheshkov", "Sestroretsk" and "Tuman") have successfully handled the first FSO vessel at Big Port St. Petersburg. The tugs started escorting the 166,500dwt PRISCO Mizar (shipowner PRISCO) on April 4 and today towed the FSO to the 5A outer anchorage of Big Port St. Petersburg (off Kronstadt), the towing company told PortNews. One of the tugs, "Leonid Bochkov," stays currently nearby the FSO to ensure the vessel safe riding.
The FSO PRISCO Mizar will be operated by In-Transit, a stevedoring company providing offshore transshipment of oil products in Big Port St. Petersburg. The company plans to deploy at the port’s outer harbor two more FSOs before May 10.
In-Transit employ the FSO vessels for transshipment of exported fuel oil and vacuum gas oil (VGO), transported by 5,000dwt river tankers through the Volga-Balt canal from refineries located along the inland waterways of Russia.
In the 2011 summer navigation season In-Transit has supplied 4,072 tons of Russian export oil products, an 11-percent gain year-over-year. In 2011, the company had deployed at the outer anchorage of Big Port St. Petersburg three FSOs.