Russia needs more offshore vessels

Russia?s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin urged his government to provide the country with a modern fleet of offshore vessels for its flourishing energy sector and is to include drilling platforms, ice-class gas carriers and icebreakers.

The St Petersburg meeting, called to discuss the revival of national shipbuilding, became the first major event attended by top ministers of Putin’s new cabinet. “In the past 10 years only 6% of ships ordered by Russian owners have been built at national docks,” Putin told the meeting.

Shipbuilding is a sector where Russia is seen as competitive, and is viewed by the Kremlin as a potential engine for economic diversification. As president, Putin launched a federal programme worth 136 billion roubles ($5.71 billion) aimed at reviving the sector, which has been steadily declining since the fall of the Soviet Union. The programme is managed by a newly created state corporation.

The government will be allocating 90 billion roubles ($3.78 billion) from the state budget and urged private companies to take part. A plan to build new dockyards in the St Petersburg region has been proposed by Rossiya bank, owned by Yuri Kovalchuk, a businessmen close to Putin. In the Far East, where Russia is developing lucrative gas deposits around Sakhalin Island, South Korean shipbuilders could have a role in building a new shipyard.