NOVATEK, key cargo shipper on the Northern Sea Route, has ambitious plans on creation of infrastructure for LNG shipments though state financing is lagging behind so far. The plans on construction of transshipment facilities in Murmansk and Kamchatka requiring application of unique technologies can be challenged by insufficient financing of the NSR infrastructure including that of Sabetta.

The future of Russian ports will be determined by the plan for core transport infrastructure development till 2024, corporatization of Rosmorport and legislative improvements. All of this is to raise overall annual capacity of Russian ports by 350 million tonnes minimum with their throughput to grow by one third.

Toughening of international requirements on marine fuel presents new challenges for Russia. RF Ministry of Energy is going to provide subsidies to manufacturers of low-sulfur fuel oil, Sovcomflot stakes on LNG, Atomflot calls for construction of nuclear-powered icebreakers while the global shipping community still says that “fuel” future is vague.

Transshipment of Russian mineral fertilizers, ore and grain via the ports of the Baltic states surged in the 9-month period of 2018 but the trend can change with the appearance of a terminal handling mineral fertilizers in Ust-Luga, building up coal transshipment and creation of a dry cargo area at the port of Primorsk.

In the nine-months period of 2018, Russian ports of the Baltic Basin saw oil transshipment decrease of 17.4%, or almost 10 million tonnes. Slight decline of oil transshipment was also seen in the Far East Basin.

Rosrybolovstvo, Rosatom and fishing businesses are working over an issue of arranging a regular shipping line to deliver fish from the Far East by the Northern Sea Route. According to preliminary estimations, logistic cost in this case will be almost 30% less as compared with deliveries by railway.

Russia is set to build five research vessels (RV). Three of them will be built for the Federal Agency for Fishery (Rosrybolovstvo) and a pair for the Ministry of Education and Science. To recover the newbuilds costs the Ministry plans to operate the duo as ice-class offshore supply vessels (OSV). The RV design for Rosrybolovstvo will be completed before the end of 2018.

The key task of Russia’s Federal Customs Service is digitization of its activities, automation of customs procedures and development of e-document flow. That is supposed to create conditions for equal and fair competition as well as for minimization of exporters/importers’ costs. Yet, the business takes it with a pinch of salt so far.

According to an opinion expressed recently, construction of Leader class icebreakers is not supported by sufficient feasibility study being just a politically driven decision. The matter is what kinds of ‘Leaders’ are to be built and what are their tasks.

All over the world, ship owners continue adapting to new requirements on content of harmful substances in marine fuel. The number of vessels running on liquefied natural gas is increasing with Russia gradually creating its own LNG-powered fleet. Coastal infrastructure will appear as the number of such ships grows.