Baltic BASU General Director Dmitri Smirnov: "The entire system of Gosmorspassluzhba will benefit from its reorganization"

- Mr. Smirnov, in the framework of reorganization of Russia’s Gosmorspassluzhba (State Marine Rescue Service) Baltic Basin Emergency and Rescue Administration (Baltic BASU) will become a branch of Gosmorspassluzhba. What are the pros and cons of this reform? How can it affect your business?

- As you know, the Ministry of Transport and Rosmorrechflot are actively and consistently carrying out the revamping of Gosmorspassluzhba. To date we have completed the first phase of reforms, having been united into one Federal State Unitary Enterprise (FSUE) under the auspices of the "Baltic BASU", which combined all the regional emergency response and rescue authorities and departments of rescue and underwater engineering operations (ASPTR) located in all the basins of the Russian Federation. The first were Sakhalin BASU, the second – the Far Eastern (now Primorsky branch), the following were Caspian ASPTR department (now the North-Caspian branch), then it was Murmansk BASU (Northern branch) and finally Novorossiysk ASPTR (now Azov-Black Sea branch) joined the Baltic BASU. After that, we have merged into a single Federal State Unitary Enterprise. The employees of the parent organization and its branches have accomplished tremendous job on the property transfer, on interaction with regional Federal Property Management Agency’s offices. We’ve completed all acceptance / transfer certificates. This was a huge job, which took almost a year.

In the second phase we will change (by the government’s order) the form of ownership, i.e. our Federal State Unitary Enterprise will become Federal Budget Institution (FBI). The final, third stage, means our merger with Gosmorspassluzhba and as a result, it will FBI Gosmorspassluzhba with branches in all the basins of the Russian Federation.

Above all, the whole system of Gosmorspassluzhba will , as this will increase the performance of Russia's international obligations for search and rescue people in distress at sea, and to assist emergency courts, and to prevent and eliminate oil spills. Among the main objectives of the reform - the organization of a unified system management, optimization of the financial model by reducing staff, a balanced budget and commercial financing and will also be an effective system of control over the conduct of economic activities in the field.    We also expect an increase in funding. Already, in accordance with the federal target program run by the Russian Ministry of Transportation to build a new fleet for Gosmorspassluzhba system, has more than 17 billion rubles. for the period until 2015 for the construction of the fleet. Baltic BASS has already received two new vessels in 2011 - a raid diving boat "Litvin Diver" and bonopostanovschik "Gennady Kozhukhov." Also last year, and now we have to draw up documents to the ship-bonopostanovschik "Evgeny Morozov." In addition, to date Gosmorspassluzhba already decided that the first head-One rescue boat with capacity of 4 MW "Lifeguard Karev", built on the Nevsky Shipbuilding-shipyard, will go to the Baltic Sea bass. This vessel will operate in our region.

- Are you going to revise the current contracts for emergency and rescue service provided for commercial companies after the reorganization? Can we expect that the cost of the service of Baltic BASU under commercial contracts will decrease / increase?

- The revamping will not affect in any way the current contracts. I think, it would be wrong to unify everything. Each region has its own difference, its own price for fuel and the form of payment. For instance, in Murmansk, the price is depends on the "northern surcharge", added to the employees wage, and a large amount of expensive winter fuel. At the same time, in the southern region the fuel is cheaper and people do not have the "northern wages", and respectively, the contracts price for the service is lower. So, as for the contracts, nothing changes.

- What would you say about the preparedness of Baltic BASU to respond to emergency situations and rescue operations in the Northwest? Tell up please, what facilities and equipment are available in your organization, and do you plan to acquire aircrafts?

- The Baltic BASU fleet comprises the ice-class “Yazny”, a multipurpose salvage ship with unlimited navigation area, which maintains preparedness for emergency response and salvage operations throughout the year, the Project 1454 rescue tug "Topaz" (Project 1454), which is also ready to respond year-round, the sea-going tugboat "Vyborg," inshore tug "Portoviy" and three oil boom workboats of Harding class. As I have said, we have also new ships received from Gosmorspassluzhba – oil boom workboats “Evgeny Morozov” and “Gennady Kozhukhov” and inshore DSV “Vodolaz Litvin”. In addition, we operate three diving support vessels and 2 oil skimmers for the collection of oil debris in the harbor. And, at the end of the year, we expect to take delivery of the 4MW salvage vessel “Spasatel Karev”. Thus, we will have three ships of unlimited navigation area with ice class. Also to ensure Oil Spill Response (OSR), we have special equipment for collection of oil from the water area - oil-containment booms and skimmers.

As for the interaction with the aviation, at the last meeting at Emergencies Ministry, it was decided that EMERCOM helicopters involved in emergency and salvage operations, be equipped with marine-band radios. The fact is, that during recent our joint exercises with EMERCOM we found that there was no connection between the aircrafts and the salvage ships, as they operate on different frequencies. Actually, we hope to get our own aircrafts. I think that in future it will be possible. In any case, the 4MW vessel, we expect to receive, features a helipad.

- During the 2011-2012 winter navigation, the Baltic BASU professionals were part of crews onboard the icebreakers of Rosmorport – the Moscow and the Saint Petersburg equipped for oil spill response in ice environment. Please tell us about the results of this work. Have there been any oil spills, did your teams participate in oil spill response?

- There were no spills last winter shipping season. We were tasked to participate in the OSR drills as crew members of the icebreakers with onboard equipment for oil spill response in ice conditions. We tested the equipment readiness for operation.

- How often does Baltic BASU conduct the OSR drills?

- The exercises are held as required by our customers, who have to hold regular oil spill response drills and we, of course, participate in all these exercises. In addition, once a year we participate in international OSR drills. For example, in May last year we participated in international search and salvage exercises in Denmark. In August 2011, we participated in OSR drills held in that country. This year's search & salvage drills were also held in Denmark. In late August Helsinki will host oil spill response exercises. Our team and a salvage boat will likely participate in the drills.

- What do you see Gosmorspassluzhba service in the Arctic and the Northern Sea Route (NSR)?

- We are currently establishing in the Arctic, namely in Tiksi and Khatanga, a seasonal marine rescue coordination center (MRCC).
The Russian Ministry of Transportation pays special attention to the organization of search and salvage in this northern region. To date, Gosmorspassluzhba will beef up the eastern sector of the Arctic with additional rescue units. In September last year we were participating under the supervision of the Security Council of the Russian Federation in exercises for salvage stricken ships in the Laptev Sea and oil spill response preparedness. Teams from regional emergency and rescue administrations participated in the exercises, including Murmansk, Sakhalin and the Baltic units. The Murmansk BASU (now member of the Northern branch of our Baltic BASU) signed contracts with FSUE Atomflot to deploy rescue teams onboard the Arctic icebreakers.

- Where and how often do your teams undergo training / retraining?

- Training and retraining of our experts is conducted on the base of the Maritime Training Simulator Center of the State Maritime Academy (SMA) of Adm Makarov. They have a very good base out there, and we have a long partnership. Actually, there are not a few centers for training salvagers, like those of the Ministry of Transportation and the Emergencies Ministry (EMERCOM).

- How can one become a marine rescuer and undergo special training?

- First he comes to us, and we, in our turn, send him for training in the State Maritime Academy of Adm Makarov and then we will gladly employ the trained rescuer. It is sufficient to have a specialized secondary education.

- What would you say about the qualification of young professionals coming to work in Baltic BASU   

- The level of attainment of the guys who had passed training and come to us is very good. Today, our company perfectly copes with all tasks for maintaining emergency response and rescue preparedness.

- Could you say being a marine rescuer is the high prestige job?

It’s true that our profession prestige has declined a bit in the last years when people in this country forgot even the seafarer job. But today the profession of a sailor has revived, we build new fleet. Hopefully, the profession of marine rescuer should become very prestigious, as it was before.

Interviewed by Margaret Babkova.