Barge Fuel Exports Help Russia Negotiate Tanker Shortage
Russia exported more than 700,000 metric tons of oil products from the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk in 2023 using small river barges because of a lack of bigger tankers owing to EU sanctions and price cap limitations, market sources said and LSEG data showed.Some ship owners have avoided Russian ports since the EU embargo and price cap on Russian refined oil products went into effect in February last year, forcing shippers to turn to a so-called shadow fleet of ageing tankers.The shadow fleet has supported the flow of Russian barrels…
Russian JV Close Acquisition of Prime Shipping
The Russian Joint Venture between Rosneft, Sberbank Investments and Pietro Barbaro S.p.A. closed the acquisition of the Pietro Barbaro Group shipping assets in the Russian Federation (100% share of Prime Shipping group of companies). Prime Shipping is one of the leaders of the Russian river and sea transportation tanker market. The deal was financed by Sberbank. The acquisition of a logistics asset will allow Rosneft to strengthen its positions in the river transportation market and enhance the efficiency of operations, including that in the area of oil and oil products trading, and secure tanker fleet transportation. In particular, modern fleet of Prime Shipping will enable optimization of Rosneft’s transport charges…
Achinsk Refinery Resumes Operation on Tight Schedule
Achinsk Oil refinery, suspended after the incident of June 15, 2014 has recovered the processes of primary crude oil processing on a tight schedule, according to the plan of repair activities. From the 1st of September the enterprise has commenced production of the main types of oil products: straight-run gasoline, diesel fuel, marine fuel and aviation fuel, as well as WLHF (wide light hydrocarbon fraction). Concurrently with the primary crude processing plant a VT-Bitumen unit, producing petroleum bitumen, resumed to operating. Achinsk refinery is planned to produce more than 400 thousand tons of finished product, which makes more than 70% of prefault performance. The production volume will be increased in months to come.
Strike Blocks Tankers in France
A rolling strike on blocked 14 oil tankers from entering France's biggest oil port of Fos-Lavera, part of the state-run French port of Marseille, according to a Reuters report. The total number of ships is unchanged on the previous day but down four ships compared with May 2. "This includes eight crude oil ships and 6 refined oil tankers," the port said in a statement, adding that one gas tanker and three chemical tankers were also blocked from entering the hub. France's national port union, part of the CGT federation, called on workers last month to stage 24-hour strikes on a weekly basis to protest against government plans to privatise loading activities at state-run ports.
