Such a logistics could become a breakthrough
With the support of the Omsk Region Government, Omsk River Port JSC is going to arrange a pilot voyage for grain exports to China by Irtysh river this year, Sergey Sandulov, General Director of Omsk River Port, said at the dedicated webinar organized by IAA PortNews together with Marine Engineering Bureau.
“With the support of Omsk Region Governor Aleksandr Burkov we are currently iscussion organizational issues with the Kazakhstan representatives. In April we will visit Kazakhstan to discuss the passage of the ATB unit. Russia and Kazakhstan already understand how the voyage should be arranged. As for China, we do not yet have a clear understanding of crossing the border, passing the territory of China, location of unloading”, explained Sergey Sandulov.
According to him, assistance is needed from the state authorities of the three countries.
Professor Gennady Yegorov, General Director of Marine Engineering Bureau believes that could be a breakthrough logistics scheme. “That is very interesting for all the three countries”, he said.
For the first voyage, Omsk River Port is going to deploy barges of Projects 942 and 911 upgraded to “O” class for passing the water storage basins.
Roman Chesnokov, head of Ob-Irtysh Basin Administration, says that current cargo traffic on the Irtysh river between Russia and Kazakhstan is 150,000 tonnes.
“In Soviet times, they used to transport up to 1.5 million tonnes and we see the potential for building up cargo transportation between the countries”, says Roman Chesnokov.
Annual cargo traffic within the Ob-Irtysh Basin exceeded 8 million tonnes in 2020 including 6 million tonnes of construction materials and liquid bulk cargo. Waterways of the Basin are 14,627 km long.