Murmansk Region Government suggests shifting oil transshipment in the Kola Bay from offshore to costal terminals, IAA PortNews correspondent cites Aleksey Tyukavin, Deputy Governor of the Murmansk Region, as saying at the VIII International Forum "Arctic: Today and the Future".
According to the official, Murmansk Region Government is concerned about temporary permits provided by the Ministry of Transport for a long term to offshore transshipment facilities. They can transship Arctic oil in the Kola Bay onto large ships having no ice class.
Aleksey Tyukavin suggests looking into arranging costal transshipment facilities. In his opinion, they are safer although their cost is higher.
As of today, transshipment of Arctic oil at the port of Murmansk is performed via two offshore transshipment facilities - LUKOIL’s LK-Volga LLC and Gazprom Neft’s FSO Umba.
The Murmansk Region has a special strategic status for Russia. Geographical location defined the Kola Peninsula as a priority element in ensuring the geopolitical interests of Russia in the north of Europe and the Arctic. Its non-freezing deep-water the Kola Bay became the main base of the Northern Fleet, and Murmansk sea port became the center of industrial fishing in the Barents Sea and the North Atlantic, and the starting point of the Arctic.
Today, Murmansk is the only port in European Russia with an open access to major oceanic routes. Port of Murmansk has direct access to the Northern Sea Route, that links the Atlantic to the Pacific through the arctic waters and provides access to natural resources of the Far North, Siberia and the Far East.
The Murmansk Region located at the junction of transnational routes and having reliable sea, railway, road and air links with industrial Russian regions can surely be called a northern gateway of Russia.