Harbour Master’s Service of the port tells IAA PortNews about the situation in the bunkering market of Saint-Petersburg.

Situation with oil spills is improving

According to statistics provided to IAA PortNews by Harbour Master’s Office of Big Port St. Petersburg, more than 20 bunkering companies operate in the port today. Last year, the market saw no game changers in the market of this region.

As for the number of oil spills, the situation is improving. Only three oil spills were registered in 2017 vs 8 incidents registered in 2016. In QI’2018, no oil spills occurred.

In 2017, the personnel of the Harbour Master’s Service took part in three comprehensive exercises to practice oil spill response as representatives of the federal executive authority.

The Federal Law No 177 (dated 18 July 2017) introduced some changes in the procedure of approving OSR plans with no changes related to the exercises. The procedure of coordinating oil spill response exercises with Harbour Masters’ services has not been changed either.

Plans and Prospects

When speaking about the development plans and key events in the bunkering market of the port, it is necessary to mention the creation of the Turukhtanniye Islands terminal and the plans to create an LNG bunkering infrastructure.

Marine Oil Terminal “Turukhtanniye Islands” launched by Baltic Fuel Company (BFC, on of the top three bunker suppliers in the port) currently consists of a 7.3-hecare plot of land and two berths for transshipment of oil products in Big Port St. Petersburg. The terminal’s annual throughput is to be increased to 4-5 mln t by 2020.

The key issue of the bunkering market in Saint-Petersburg is the creation of infrastructure for supplying vessels with LNG. According to DNV, over time LNG is likely to become the second most popular type of fuel after oil products.

The projects on construction of LNG bunker infrastructure at the ports of the Gulf of Finland’ Eastern part announced to date include Baltic LNG (Ust-Luga), CS Portovaya, Cryogas (Vysotsk), LNG-Gorskaya (Saint-Petersburg).

As for the dedicated bunkering fleet, Gazpromneft Marine Bunker earlier announced its plan to put into operation an LNG bunkering tanker in the middle of 2019. The tanker capacity will be 3,000 cbm of LNG, draft – 4.5 m. ice class – 1В. The vessel is to operate in the North-West Region of Russia.

Russia’s Ministry of Industry and Trade is implementing its own project “Development of gas-fuelled fleet for navigation in coastal waters and inland water ways”. In particular, the project foresees the designing of vessels dedicated for LNG bunkering.

Thus, general situation in the bunkering market of Saint-Petersburg is quite stable amid high volatility of oil market and legislative changes. However, this segment is facing new challenges associated with the rise of alternative types of fuel, improvement of vessels’ energy efficiency, toughening of international and local environmental laws.

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