The general meeting of Association of Marine and River Bunkers was held in Saint-Petersburg on the 22nd of June. 

The participants accessed the operating results of Association. A progress was achieved in the main task to develop the constructive dialogue with the relevant governmental bodies both on federal and local levels in the interests of the participants.

The other Association activities got the positive reaction as well, in particular the educational. Association held two educational programs, concerning the most relevant issues for the bunker companies: “The specifics of the application of the international sea law” and “Training of the hazardous cargoes transportation advisors”.  Among the attendants there were both the representatives of the private companies and the governmental bodies.

The following decisions were accepted at the meeting:

• ·To define the major Principles for the participants of the civilized bunker market. The principles include 10 clauses, which execution guarantee transparent, secure work and can provide the high quality of the supplied fuel.
• ·To approve the provision concerning the register of the bunkering companies of Saint-Petersburg. The register along with the Principles has to ensure the secure and high quality production activity. The participation is totally voluntary. To be added to the register the company has to provide the information about its activity, which can confirm that the company follows all the rules, safety regulations and environment protection laws. The register holder will be the Oil club of Saint-Petersburg – an independent organization, enjoying the full authority in the industry. At the current level the register will include only Saint-Petersburg company, in prospect it will embrace other regions of theRussian Federation.
• ·To approve the standard forms of the tanker bareboat charter and time charter, introduced for the first time inRussia. The author of the document – the law department of LLC “Lukoil Neva”, the document is specially worked out for the bunker operations. It contains the detailed requirements for the safety of the transportation and transshipment operations and for the fuel quality up to the world standards. The present work indicates the maturity of the bunker market in Russia. As it is common in the world practice, the contract freight forms will be available to all the companies.
• ·The members of the Association by common consent accepted the idea to enter BIMCO, as far as the authority of this international organization will enable to protect efficiently the interests of the member companies.