Plans for new bunker terminal inside Arctic Circle

Saturday, 28 February 2009 11:06

There are plans to build a new bunker terminal in the north Russian port of Murmansk. A Russian report says the Murmansk Shipping Company (MSCO) wants to build a terminal for year-round

supplies of fuel oil to tankers and that it is aiming to handle up to 93,000 metric tonnes (mt) of product a year. Building is scheduled to start 2010 and is expected to take two years to complete. According to the report, the construction contract will be put out to tender.

 

MSCO is a leader in arctic transportation. It specialises in oil, freight and passenger transport. Murmansk, on the Kola Peninsula on the coast of Barents Sea, is the largest port inside the Arctic Circle and is Russia's most northerly ice free port.

It has become strategically crucial as an export route for oil from Siberian and Arctic oil fields. Before the start of the global recession, oil and gas exports had been rising year-on-year.

There had also been a sharp rise in container exports and metals and the port is a major exporter of coal.

The port's bunker market is already selling around 500,000 metric tonnes of fuel a year and players have predicted that annual volumes could climb to two million mt if gas and crude oil exports reach their potential.

There are already some five bunker suppliers in the port, including the bunker divisions of the Russian oil majors, Gaspromneft, Rosneft and Lukoil.

Most of the bunker product supplied in the port is intermediate fuel oil (IFO), although some distillate fuel is supplied to fishing fleets.

There are currently no facilities for ex-pipe deliveries and all bunkers are supplied by barge.

Source: TankerWorld