Polina Devitt News

Britannia, the insurer of container ship the Dali, is working with the vessel's owner and U.S. authorities on the investigation into the collapse of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge, the insurer said on Thursday.The bridge collapsed on Tuesday after the Dali suffered a power outage and struck a pylon, causing huge disruption in the port."We are working closely with the vessel's owner and manager and the relevant U.S. authorities as part of the investigation into the casualty…

Russia's lack of ships and Western grain traders' shrinking appetite for business with Moscow are adding to rising costs of moving Russian wheat, at a time when the war in Ukraine has spilled perilously close to vital Black Sea supply routes.President Vladimir Putin promised to replace Ukrainian grain with Russian shipments to Africa after Moscow in July ended an arrangement that gave Ukraine's food cargo safe passage in the Black Sea, imposing a de-facto blockade on its neighbour and attacking storage facilities…

Ukraine's military has suspended commercial shipping at its ports after Russian forces invaded the country, an adviser to the Ukrainian president's chief of staff said, stoking fear of supply disruption from the leading grain and oilseeds exporters.Russia earlier suspended the movement of commercial vessels in the Azov Sea until further notice, but kept Russian ports in the Black Sea open for navigation, its officials and five grain industry sources said on Thursday.Ukraine is a major exporter of corn (maize), much of it destined for China and the European Union.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko expects Russia to build a new Baltic Sea port for exports of Belarusian potash which were hit by Western sanctions, he said on Friday after he met Russian President Vladimir Putin.The two leaders met as Russia held military exercises in Belarus as part of a buildup of troops near Ukraine that has prompted Western warnings of an imminent Russian invasion. Moscow denies any such plan and says such warnings are dangerous.Belarus' state-owned Belaruskali is the world's second largest producer of the crop nutrient potash.

Russian and Chinese warships held their first joint patrols in the western Pacific Ocean over the past week, Russia's defense ministry said on Saturday, a move Japan said it was monitoring.Moscow and Beijing, which staged naval cooperation drills in the Sea of Japan earlier in October, have cultivated closer military and diplomatic ties in recent years at a time when their relations with the West have soured.The naval maneuvers, which Russia said ran from Sunday through Saturday…

Metals miner Nornickel said it will participate in the design and building of Russia's first dual-fuel liquefied natural gas (LNG) and diesel icebreaker to prepare for more capacity in the environmentally sensitive Arctic region.Russia, which has a fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers, has long considered LNG-powered icebreaking ships to develop the Northeast Sea Route into an international shipping lane from Arctic waters.Nornickel, the world's largest palladium and nickel producer…

Russian investigators were conducting searches at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) after Saturday's oil spill near the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, the regional branch of the investigative committee said on Thursday.Russia opened a criminal investigation on the spill, which occurred during loading of a tanker moored to an offshore floating jetty. According to CPC, a crucial part of the jetty broke and caused the accident."In connection with the criminal case, representatives of the Investigative Committee are interviewing CPC employees and examining documents. The consortium provides the necessary assistance to the investigation team…

Russia's top shipping company Sovcomflot plans to sell a 15.5%-17% stake in new shares and raise around 42.25 billion roubles ($534 million) in an initial public offering (IPO) on the Moscow Exchange, the company and analysts said on Monday.Sovcomflot's IPO comes at a difficult time for the Russian currency as rising coronavirus cases worldwide threaten an oil price recovery and reduce risk appetite among investors.The rouble was trading close to a 6-month low against the U.S.

In the murky story of how a cache of highly explosive ammonium nitrate ended up on the Beirut waterfront, one thing is clear—no one has ever publicly come forward to claim it.There are many unanswered questions surrounding last week's huge, deadly blast in the Lebanese capital, but ownership should be among the easiest to resolve.Clear identification of ownership, especially of a cargo as dangerous as that carried by the Moldovan-flagged Rhosus when it sailed into Beirut seven years ago, is fundamental to shipping, the key to insuring it and settling disputes that often arise.But Reuters interviews and trawls for documents across 10 countries in search of the original ownership of this 2…

The devastating explosion in Beirut should be a wake-up call for countries on the dangers of ammonium nitrate, which caused the blast, experts say.Lebanese authorities said 2,750 tonnes of the industrial chemical had been stored for six years at Beirut port without safety measures. That stockpile exploded on Tuesday, killing more than 150 people, injuring thousands and leaving about a quarter of a million people homeless.Commonly used in fertilizers and as an industrial explosive…

Russian state oil giant Rosneft plans to build a port with maximum annual capacity of 115 million tonnes of oil for its Vostok Oil project in the Russian Arctic, the RIA news agency quoted the company as saying on Tuesday.Rosneft said in a statement previously on Tuesday that the Vostok Oil project could be supplying 25 million tonnes of oil in 2024, 50 million tonnes in 2027 and up to 115 million tonnes in 2030.Vostok Oil unites Rosneft’s projects in northern Russia, including the Lodochnoye…

Russia’s online grain export quota was running out fast on Saturday as big traders rushed to get customs documents for future shipments, analysts said, adding that supplies from the world’s biggest wheat exporter would continue nevertheless.Russia set a quota for grain exports of 7 million tonnes for April through June following the outbreak of the virus. Russia's online calculator showed here that as of Saturday only 873,179 tonnes remained available for export based on the quota.Analysts…

Russia plans to invest $500 million in the Syrian port of Tartus and build a grain hub there to boost its presence on Middle East markets, Interfax news agency cited Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov as saying on Tuesday.Russia, the world's largest wheat exporter, has stepped up grain supplies to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in recent years since Moscow's 2015 military intervention on his behalf in Syria's civil war.Construction of the necessary infrastructure at the port…

Russia's second-biggest bank VTB is buying one of the biggest grain terminals at the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, in a surprise move that gives the state lender more control over the country's main deep-sea grain export hub.VTB, which already owns a stake in another grain terminal at the port, said on Thursday that it was buying 100 percent of Novorossiysk Grain Terminal from Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port (NSCP).Its deal to buy the terminal from NSCP, which is controlled…

Ten crew members have been found dead and 14 have been rescued after two ships caught fire in the Kerch Strait near Crimea, Russia's transport ministry said on Monday, with a rescue operation still underway.The ministry said earlier on Monday that crew members were jumping into the sea to escape the blaze, which probably broke out during a ship-to-ship fuel transhipment.Both ships were under the Tanzanian flag - Candy (Venice) and Maestro - and had a combined total of 31 crew members. Of them, 16 were Turkish citizens and 15 from India, it said.An industry source told Reuters there were stormy conditions in the sea when the incident happened.The Kerch Strait between Russian-annexed Crimea and southern Russia controls access from the Black Sea to the Azov Sea…

Sanctions-hit Russian aluminium producer Rusal said on Tuesday it had started shipping bauxite from its Dian-Dian bauxite project in Guinea to its alumina refineries in other countries.Rusal, the world's largest aluminium producer outside China, has been hit by U.S. sanctions imposed on it and co-owner Oleg Deripaska in early April, a move that damaged the company's exports and internal supply chain.The company said it had completed the first stage of development of the Dian-Dian bauxite deposit in Guinea, the world's largest, and started exporting the ore."The commissioning of the bauxite mine means not only the creation of new jobs and increased employment for the local population…

Russian aluminum giant Rusal has stopped placing orders with two logistics firms that ship its exports, executives with the firms said on Tuesday, in a sign of deepening problems for the company after it was hit by U.S. sanctions.Rusal and its major shareholder Oleg Deripaska were included on a U.S. sanctions blacklist this month, leading to anxiety among many of its customers, suppliers and creditors who fear they too could be hit by sanctions through association with the company.A number of traders and customers of Rusal's aluminum have stopped buying the firm's products…

Russia's largest freight container operator, TransContainer said on Tuesday Russian aluminium giant Rusal had suspended exports through TransContainer's system after Rusal was hit by U.S. sanctions "They (Rusal) do not know what to do yet, what is going on with them; that is why all transportation operations are suspended," TransContainer's chief executive Petr Baskakov told reporters in Moscow on Tuesday.According to his estimate, Rusal had been shipping 25-30 percent of its exports via TransContainer.

Russian oil exports from the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk were suspended on Sunday due to storm, oil pipeline monopoly Transneft said on Monday.   It also said that loadings from the Pacific outlet of Kozmino resumed on Sunday after storm, which did not affect the loading schedule.   Other ports are working according to their plans, Transneft said. (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Polina Devitt)

Russia will export 2.9 million tonnes of Urals crude oil from the Baltic ports of Primorsk and Ust-Luga on November 1-16, down 0.8 million tonnes from the same period of October, according to a preliminary schedule, seen by Reuters.   Russia will increase Urals and Siberian light oil exports from the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk by 0.36 million tonnes to 1.6 million for November 1-18, the schedule showed. (Reporting by Gleb Gorodyankin; writing by Denis Pinchuk; editing by Polina Devitt and Jason Neely)

Russian gas producer Novatek expects its Yamal LNG project to secure external financing in the next 2-3 months, Interfax news agency quoted Leonid Mikhelson, Novatek chief executive, as saying on Wednesday. Western sanctions imposed over Moscow's role in the Ukraine crisis have made it harder for Novatek to raise funds for the Yamal project, which is due to start producing liquefied natural gas (LNG) in 2017. (Reporting by Polina Devitt; Editing by Alexander Winning)

Russian grain exporters have resumed deals with Turkish buyers after a short break caused by a deterioration in relations between the two countries, traders and analysts said. Russia, one of the world's largest wheat exporters, and Turkey, one of the biggest buyers of Russian wheat, have been locked in a dispute since Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian-Turkish border in late November. For several weeks after that, Russian and Turkish traders held back from signing new contracts, fearing Moscow could suspend grain exports to Turkey or Ankara could curb purchases, the traders and analysts said. But no such measures have been imposed and business has returned to normal, they added.

A Russian Black Sea corvette and a coast guard boat have forced a commercial vessel under a Turkish flag to change course after it got in the way of a Crimean energy firm's boats towing oil rigs, the company said on Monday. The firm, Chernomorneftegaz, said the rigs were delivered into safety.   Reporting by Polina Devitt