The second Russian Forum “Current Trends and Highlights in Russian Bunkering Market” was held in Petersburg on June 25-26, 2009.

Participants and managers of the event, Russian Association of Marine and River Bunker Suppliers, unanimously agreed that the second forum appeared to be even more successful than the previous despite the world economical crisis impact. 

About 100 delegates, mostly representing bunkering companies from different Russian regions, Europe and Singapore attended the Forum. Company managers of related industries – insurance, finance, oil, legal firms, equipment suppliers, etc. – also attended the event as usual. Industry professionals had a lot of questions to government organizations – FGUP “Rosmorport”, Customs, Federal Marine and River Transport Agency, Federal Antimonopoly Service. Relevant representatives were the guests of the Forum.    

Several companies sponsored the Forum:  Gaspromneft Marine Bunker, LUKOIL-bunker, Damen Shipyards, Tallinn Shipyard, Innospec Limited, Infotech Flex. 

The Association President mentioned in his introductory speech that the last year between the first and the second Russian bunkering forums was extremely unfavourable for the industry. It consisted of two uneven parts – before and after October 2008.  

A year ago experts were confident to predict future accelerated development of the market, companies projected to expand activities, to improve infrastructure, to update fleet.

Concerning current situation Mr. Kovalev stated that the existing data demonstrates dropping of the total turnover in the Russian ports by 28-30% and demonstrated the bunkering market statistics for the first four months of 2009. 

He concluded that the current forecast is unreliable, current trends are definitely negative and bunkering community itself is solely responsible for the industry condition at the moment of stabilization. 

Participants were really interested in the speeches devoted to implementation of Annex 21 MARPOL. It is obvious for the businesses and authorities that Russia is supposed to fulfil commitments though it is clear enough that the broad program can’t be implemented in the short term.  Particularly, one of the speakers, Arseniy Brykin, industrial development expert for the State Duma, told that the strategy for development of the shipping industry in Russia for the period till 2020 includes certain support measures for the transport companies contracting domestic shipping yards. Partial reimbursement of leasing payments to Russian leasing companies is accepted among other measures. It is planned to spend 670 million roubles for these purposes during 2010 – 2020. 190 million roubles were allotted for the current year but this amount was not demanded, Brykin said. The main reason is inadequate information of the bunkering companies, potential program participants. 

Other issues were also discussed at the Forum – safety, fuel and service quality under growing competition, regional markets, insurance problems, payment delays, etc.

Forum participants agreed that the meetings in Petersburg during the White Nights season became a wonderful tradition and wished to meet again in a year.