Russia Lifts Oil Berth Ban At One Of The Largest Black Sea Ports

A Russian court has ruled against a decision that temporarily halted operations at an oil berth in the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, according to an industry source who spoke to Reuters.

The berth, known as mooring number 8, is operated by Transneft, Russia’s state-controlled oil pipeline company.

Last week, Transneft had announced that it had suspended operations at the berth for 90 days after a surprise inspection was carried out by a transport watchdog.

The port was fined 200,000 roubles (about $2,322) for certain violations, although the nature of these irregularities was not specified.

Transneft has not commented on the matter yet.

The Novorossiisk Commercial Sea Port, where the berth is located, is one of Russia’s biggest oil export ports.

Industry insiders believe that the closure of a single mooring is unlikely to cause any major disruption to the overall port operations.

According to the source, the berth is mainly used for handling smaller tankers that carry up to 10,000 tons of oil products.

Just last week, in a similar case, another Russian court ruled against suspending the Caspian Pipeline Consortium’s (CPC) Black Sea terminal.

The CPC, which has Western backing, uses two nearby berths at Novorossiisk to export oil coming from Kazakhstan.

The ruble-dollar exchange rate at the time of reporting stands at 86.1455 roubles per U.S. dollar.

Reference: Reuters

Source: Maritime Shipping News