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Gazprom Neft delivers a 3.5-fold increase in sales of environmentally friendly marine fuels in 2020

Gazpromneft Marine Bunker, operator of the Gazprom Neft bunkering business, delivered a 3.5-fold increase in ship-to-ship sales of MARPOL-compliant marine fuels in 2020,* reaching 1.1 million tonnes and giving the business a 20% market share in low-sulphur and ultra-low-sulphur bunkering fuels in the Russian Federation.

One third of all sales of environmentally friendly fuel occurred at ports in the Baltic Sea, Barents Sea and White Sea – Gazprom Neft having enhanced its fleet in Murmansk and Archangelsk by relocating its Gazpromneft Nord-East bunkering vessel from St Petersburg in order to service seagoing vessels covering Arctic projects and the Northern Sea Route. Gazprom Neft’s bunkering-fuel portfolio includes high-quality, environmentally friendly petroleum products for various types of marine engines and navigation zones – i.e., hybrid fuel developed by Gazpromneft Marine Bunker specialists, as well as products from the Omsk Refinery, including ultra-low-sulphur and low-sulphur fuels, production of which increased in 2020.

Gazpromneft Marine Bunker is continuing its development of a new market sector in Russian shipping – LNG bunkering, with the company joining the international Society for Gas as a Marine Fuel (SGMF), committed to developing and standardising technologies for LNG production, storage and transportation. December 2020 saw construction of Russia’s first LNG bunkering vessel, the Dmitry Mendeleev, go into its final stages, with the vessel being put to sea ahead of final fitting out and installation works. This Gazprom Neft bunkering vessel is expected to be fully commissioned in the second half of 2021.

‘The MARPOL regulations that came into force in early 2020 have changed the fuel landscape for the entire shipping industry: instead of traditional heavy marine oil – mazut, petroleum products with a sulphur content below 0.5% are increasingly in demand. Investments in modernising refining had been planned well in advance at Gazprom Neft, meaning the Omsk Refinery could start producing environmentally friendly fuels ahead of this, covering the growing demand for petroleum products meeting high ecological standards.’

Alexey MedvedevDirector General, Gazpromneft Marine Bunker

MARPOL refers to the ‘International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships’. An amendment to the main treaty in early 2015 introduced further regulation governing the permissible amount of sulphur in marine fuels used in vessels covering Sulphur Emission Control Areas (SECA, covering shipping zones including the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the English Channel, where vessels are required to switch to low-sulphur fuels). With effect from 1 January 2020 the requirements of the MARPOL Convention forbidding the use of fuels with sulphur content above 0.5 percent have come into force throughout international navigation.
Source: OAO Gazprom Neft

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