Oil tycoon buys Port of Murmansk
Russian oil tycoon Gennady Timchenko is reported to have sealed a deal on the acquisition of the Port of Murmansk, the fourth biggest in Russia and a key asset in the development of the country’s Arctic.
Business structures belonging to Gennady Timchenko will buy the Murmansk Commercial Sea Port for a total of 250 million USD, Reuters reports. The deal is to be completed in the course of the first quarter of the year.
A spokesman for Timchenko denies that the purchase has taken place. However, sources close to both the buyer and the Murmansk port confirm the deal, the news agency writes.
As previously reported by BarentsObserver, the Murmansk Port was last year included in the list of state-owned enterprises to be privatized. The state owns 25,49 percent of the port, while 34,97 is controlled by Specialized Project Investments and 12,68 by Laterium Commercial Limited.
With the acquisition of the port, Timchenko will become a considerable player also in the Russian Arctic. The Murmansk Port, located strategically in ice-free and deep-sea waters, will inevitably become a key asset in the development of Russian offshore oil and gas projects in the Arctic.
The port was last year granted status as special economic port zone, something which is expected to boost its popularity among investors. The enhanced port status is also believed to help prepare the ground for the major upcoming developments linked with the Shtokman gas project in the Barents Sea.
Read also: Murmansk started development of Special Port Zone
The port today has the capacity to handle about 20 million tons of goods per year. In 2010, the port handled 12,87 million tons, a drop of 14,8 percent from 2009. Of this, 9,74 percent was coal, newspaper Vedomosti reports. Also increasing volumes of oil have over the last years been shipped through facilities in the port area.
Read also: Over 15 million tons of oil through Belokamenka
While all port activities in Murmansk today are based on the eastern side of the Kola Bay, several key activities will in the future take place also on the western side of the bay. As previously reported, a number of major investment projects are in pipeline along the bay. A new railway line will link the western shore of the bay with the regional railway grid and thus pave the way for the construction of several new facilities, among them a coal reloading terminal and an oil terminal.
Read more: Investment plan for Murmansk hub to be discussed
Gennady Timchenko, reportedly a citizen of Finland, has over the last years been associated with a number of controversial business deals. In 1997, he co-founded the company Gunvor, which a decade later had become the world’s third biggest oil trader. Speculations say that he is closely connected with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Timchenko and his business structures have lately shown an increasing appetite for oil company acquisitions. In 2009, he bought 23 percent of the second biggest Russian gas producer Novatek and later acquired also the Geotech Oil Services, as well as an oil terminal in Ust-Luga on the Russian Baltic coast, Vedomosti writes.
