2021 year-end results for Gazpromneft-Marine Bunker, operator of Gazprom Neft’s marine bunkering business, show the company has further consolidated its market leadership in environmentally friendly marine fuels in Russia, achieving a market share of 23% and delivering more than 1 million tonnes of low sulphur fuel (with less than 5% sulphur content) — total sales on the domestic bunkering market being 1.6 million tonnes.
Gazprom Neft increased deliveries of marine fuels to ports in the North—West Federal District in 2021, showing record growth in sales of environmentally friendly fuels — up by 26% — at the ports of Murmansk and Archangelsk, where the company handles the refuelling of major carriers on the Northern Sea Route as well as fleets servicing major infrastructure projects in the Arctic.
Gazprom Neft is a market leader in decarbonising marine transportation in Russia — the company having launched its proprietary low-sulphur marine fuel well in advance of MARPOL-2020 requirements coming into force. This product — with a sulphur content of less than 0.5% — is produced at the company’s Moscow and Omsk Refineries. Gazpromneft-Marine Bunker also undertakes hybrid-fuel blending at its own terminals in St Petersburg and Novorossiysk.
«The trend towards lower use of heavy petroleum products in favour of environmentally friendly marine fuels continued throughout 2021. Our market offering is fully in line with this trend — low-sulphur fuels already account for more than 60% of total sales, and are expected to increase further in the medium term in line with the recovery in passenger and freight traffic. Together with our partners we are, already, looking into options for expanding our product range on the basis of the potential use of LNG, and, going forward, the use of alternative environmentally friendly fuels».
Alexey Medvedev Director 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.
