POT’s share in transshipment of oil products via Big Port St. Petersburg rose from 79.9% to 80.4% in 2020
Petersburg Oil Terminal JSC has summarized the results of 2020, the year when the oil market and the global economy faced a worldwide crisis. Despite all the challenges, the terminal managed to increase its throughput by by 16.6%, to 9.2 million tonnes, POT says in a press release.
Dark oil products (mainly fuel oil) make the bulk of the throughput – 5.6 million tonnes, up 14%, year-on-year. Handling of light oil products (kerosene and diesel fuel) totaled 3.5 million tonnes, 22% more than in the previous year. Most of oil products were delivered by railway (84.8%). The share of deliveries by river decreased by 3.4% to 4.6% of the total volume while road transport delivered 10.6% of all oil products.
It was the second half of the year that show the highest growth. According to Mikhail Skigin, Chairman of POT BoD, the growth should be mainly attributed to warm winter of 2019-2020 when Russian terminals on the Baltic Sea could boost their shipments. In general, the recent year featured high turbulence in the oil market and the segment of handling in particular, he says.
“The worst forecast has proved wrong but the year of 2020 was a test of oil industry’s strength. Most of the year we were in the dark but the company’s cooperation with Russian Railways and active work of its management helped optimize the inbound and outbound logistics. In the result, handling volumes have turned positive. Unfortunately, the year of 2021 does not inspire a lot of confidence so far with everybody’s moral readiness for the crisis being the only positive factor. It should be taken into consideration that the pandemic is still on the rise. The largest economies of Europe are just toughening the prevention measures while the demand for oil products has not recovered. That does not mean that fuel exports will anyway decrease but the year is certainly going to be turbulent”, - comments Mikhail Skigin.
Among the main achievements of the year Mikhail Skigin mentioned the progress in reconstruction of Petersburg Oil Terminal's “old” part where the obsolete equipment of the soviet period will be replaced with a modern environmentally friendly facility for handling of oil products. The construction is to begin before the year end.
Besides, in 2020 POT obtained a certificate of compliance with ISO 14001:2015 “Environmental Management System” and conducted some ecological activities including stocking of fish in the Gulf of Finland and planting of oaks within the terminal territory. Among other notable achievements are successfully held large-scale OSR and firefighting exercises.
Amid the challenging pandemic situation, the company managed to shift to a new regime of operation within a short period of time: office personnel was moved to remote work, other employees were provided with individual protective means while common areas are being thoroughly sanitized.
The terminal also supplied individual protective means and sanitizers to medical institutions of the Kirovsky District and participated in supply of medical equipment to the Botkin Clinical Hospital for the Infectious Diseases.
Petersburg Oil Terminal is one of Russia’s terminals for transshipment of oil products in the Baltic Region. It is an advanced transshipment facility and one of the largest stevedoring companies of Big Port St. Petersburg. POT offers a hi-tech acceptance of oil products delivered by railway, river and road transport as well as shipment of oil products by road transport, sea-going ships and bunkering vessels. The terminal established in 1995 covers the area of 37 hectares and numbers 37 tanks for light and dark oil products. Its annual capacity is 10 million tonnes. In 2020, POT shipped over 9.2 million tonnes of oil products.