The Russian authorities has been tackling the regional transport problem, trying to provide the Crimea and southern Russia with efficient and high-speed passenger service. To solve the problem some experts have proposed to create a new entity similar to the United Transport Directorate, but the project's profitability raises doubts.

The issue of a seaport’s impact on a megacity environment has assumed a polemical character. The Association of Commercial Sea Ports (ASOP) comes up with arguments against the position of Saint-Petersburg Government’s Committee on Natural Recourses, Environment Protection and Safety concerning the port’s negative impact on urban environment.

The “war of sanctions” has an impact on container market of Russia’s North West region having lead to a slight decline of its container throughput. Meanwhile, there is an increase in the Southern and the Far Eastern basins and experts do not see anything dramatic in the situation.

Russia’s port infrastructure will develop transshipment of dry cargo and construction of deepwater terminals. Additional efforts are to be made to ensure competitiveness of the Baltic ports as tougher environmental standards come into effect.

The issue of localization of vessels and marine equipment manufacture has become more acute as the development of offshore fields has intensified amid international sanctions against Russia. Oil and gas companies have resources and are willing to place orders with national enterprises but it requires well-defined backlog of orders and adequate state programmes.

Analysts are skeptical about the prospects of Russia’s gas supplies from the Siberian fields including the prospects of LNG plant in Vladivostok. Experts forecast it to be too expensive to compete with gas from Australia and other countries. In this context, Gazprom is set to promote the development of domestic demand for gas as motor fuel.

Peter Likhachev, Marine Commercial Director at Bureau Veritas in Saint-Petersburg, tells IAA PortNews about prospects of alternative marine fuels, regulations on the use of scrubbers and plans of Bureau Veritas concerning its development in Russia.

Modernization of Russian refineries, situation in the global oil market and redirection of oil export flows to the Far East will lead to growing exports of diesel fuel, mostly by “Sever” and “Yug” pipeline systems. Starting from 2015, Transneft will accept into the system only Euro-5 diesel fuel.

Crimea suffers from transport blockade aggravated by western sanctions which results in difficulty to supply oil products to the peninsula. Crimean authorities count on the construction of a bridge over the Kerch Strait and on improvement of relations with Ukraine. Meanwhile, Gazprom suggests building a gas pipeline and switching to gas fueled transport.

Russia is set to develop yacht infrastructure at the Black Sea coast. However, there are few natural harbours for marinas in Russia so the development of yachting facilities does not seem realistic without the state participation. As of today, only two yacht marinas (except for Crimea) operate in Russia. They are located in Imeretinsky district of Sochi.