Kommersant News

Foreign shareholders suspended participation in the Arctic LNG 2 project due to sanctions, renouncing their responsibilities for financing and for offtake contracts for the new Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant, the daily Kommersant reported on Monday.The project, seen as a key element in Russia's drive to boost its LNG global market share to 20% by 2030 from 8%, was already facing difficulties due to U.S. sanctions over the conflict in Ukraine and a lack of gas carriers.China's state oil majors CNOOC  and China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) each have a 10% stake in the project…

Russia said on Sept. 21 that it had temporarily banned gasoline and diesel exports to all but four ex-Soviet states in response to domestic shortages, a move that will disrupt global trade that has already had to adjust to Western sanctions on Russian fuel exports.Russia eased some of the restrictions on Sept. 25, saying it would allow the export of bunkering fuel for some vessels and diesel with high sulphur content. The government has yet to give a timeline for any further easing…

A Russian court on the Pacific island of Sakhalin has ordered the provisional seizure of four tugboats belonging to Denmark's Svitzer, the world's biggest tugboat operator, at the request of a Russian energy company. Moscow has been seizing the assets of some Western companies which have left the country or are scaling back their business there in response to the conflict in Ukraine and Western sanctions. A court ruling dated April 24 said it had ordered the tugboats seized in response to a request by Sakhalin Energy…

Oil output at the giant Exxon-led Sakhalin-1 Russian Pacific project collapsed following the U.S. major's refusal to accept local insurance for tankers after Western insurers pulled out due to sanctions, several industry sources told Reuters. Western insurers withdrew cover from tankers operated by state-run Sovcomflot, Russia's biggest shipping group, which was sanctioned following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. "Exxon has refused to take Sovcomflot's tankers," one industry source said.

Russia is considering banning foreign vessels from shipping Russian energy cargoes via the Northern Sea Route, as well as from icebreaking and coastal navigation, the Kommersant newspaper reported on Tuesday citing a draft government resolution.The step, proposed by the Industry and Trade Ministry, would restrict vessels built outside Russia on the Northern Sea Route that Moscow wants to become a major shipping lane as the Arctic warms at a faster rate than the rest of the world.The ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Kommersant reported that the ministry on Nov.

Russia's new far eastern Zvezda shipyard has cancelled a tender to import key parts for a crude oil tanker from South Korea's Hyundai, RIA news agency reported on Monday, citing a database of state purchases.Kommersant newspaper had reported that Zvezda issued a tender to import a stern, bow sections an anchors for an Aframax crude oil tanker ordered by Rosneft despite an earlier plan to construct the tanker at the shipyard.The Zvezda shipyard, which is being built by a consortium of oil giant Rosneft…

Arctic thaw aids shipping most along Russian coast; Russia to start LNG exports from Yamal in late 2017. Russian shipping in the Arctic is benefiting from winds that are driving the oldest and thickest sea ice towards North America, further opening a remote region that is thawing amid global warming, scientists say. The thinning Russian ice could help liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers, due to start exports from Russia's Yamal Peninsula in late 2017, to navigate an icy route east to Asia for more than a planned six months of the year, they said. Almost all attention on Arctic shipping has focused on how global warming is shrinking the extent of ice around the North Pole, opening a summertime short-cut route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

While France is seeking a way to cancel its contract to deliver two helicopter carriers to the Russian navy, Russia wants 1.163 billion euros ($1.32 billion) from France in compensation for nixing the deal. President Francois Hollande is under pressure from Western allies to scrap the deal because of Moscow’s role in the Ukraine crisis. France has offered Russia its terms to scrap a contentious contract to supply two warships that was suspended due to the Ukraine crisis, but Moscow judged the sum as unacceptable. According to the Russian daily, Kommersant, Paris is offering around 785 million euros. The Kremlin says its position is clear: either France stumps up the full compensation, or it hands over the warships.

Exporters of Russian wheat have cut prices to try to speed up sales abroad before the government possibly introduces curbs to replenish its own stocks and prevent rises in the cost of bread, traders and analysts said on Friday. Russia's grain exports are running at a record high, buoyed by a large crop and a sinking rouble which after dropping 40 percent this year against the dollar has made exports more profitable than domestic sales. On Thursday, Agriculture Minister Nikolai Fyodorov told an agriculture commission in the lower house of parliament that his ministry would consider all options to restrain exports, "except an embargo", and cover domestic demand.

The state nuclear power company Rosatom is about to reach a deal with United Shipbuidling Corporation on the construction of two powerful LK-60 icebreakers according to Barents Observer. The new icebreakers will be the most powerful in the world and are key instruments in Russia’s enhanced activity level in the Arctic. The report cites newspaper Kommersant as saying that after lengthy negotiations the two Russian state enterprises are about to find an ice-breaking compromise: the two powerful 60 MW vessels…

The Russian state-owned shipbuilding firm USC has confirmed it will take full ownership of the financially challenged Arctech Helsinki shipyard from its current owner, the Korean company STX, according ot the Finnish newspaper Yle. United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) already holds a 50 percent stake in Arctech, and will now take full control when it buys out STX, says Yle, referring to a report in the Russian newspaper Kommersant. Citing USC's head of communications, Aleksei Kravchenko…

Seven out of eight steam boilers of the propulsion machinery were found defective during sea trials of 'INS Vikramaditya', delivery date put back. The Vikramaditya, formerly the Russian Navy's Admiral Gorshkov, is to be handed over to India from a Russia shipyard after ongoing sea trials following a much-delayed refit. According to the latest agreements, it was to have been handed over on December 4, but the deadline has been postponed again until October 2013. The problems started when the vessel tried to gain maximum speed.

According to a report from RioNovosti, Russian shipbuilding plant Yantar has asked Russia's state arms exporter, Rosoboronexport, for an additional $100m to complete construction of three frigates for the Indian Navy, Russian business daily Kommersant said Dec. 16. (Source: RioNovosti)

On August 28 the Krasnoyarsk branch of the Russian Fund of Federal Estate announced the privatization of ships operated by Yenisei Inland Shipping Company, reports Kommersant. By the end of the current year 104 ships of the shipping company will have been sold – among them there are 73 barges, 26 motor vessels, 2 ferries, 2 tugboats and 1 rescue vessel. The cost of the vessels is not announced. (Source: http://www.seanews.ru)

Russian Minister of Industry and Energy Viktor Khristenko intends to support the Russian shipbuilding industry through new legislation to prevent it from falling behind Western competitors. His ministry estimates that up to 40 platforms will be needed for oil and gas production on then continental shelf by 2030, along with 85 specialized ships and more than 140 support ships. Among the proposed measures Khristenko told the State Duma about yesterday were the elimination of VAT on imported equipment that has no Russian-made analogs, interest-free credits for building ships, financing for modernization of production capacity. There would also be special measures “to reinforce the priority right of Russian industry to create means to develop the sea shelf…