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Kazakhstan Gets New Russian-Built Oil Tanker

Posted on: Thursday, 28 July 2005, 12:00 CDT

Text of report by Kazakh TV on 23 July

[Presenter] An oil tanker, the Almaty, has arrived in Aktau port. This is the second tanker built at Russia's Vyborg shipyard [for Kazakhstan]. The first tanker to be commissioned, the Astana, was launched by the head of state [President Nursultan Nazarbayev] himself.

[Correspondent] It took 13 months to build the huge tanker. It can carry up to 12,000 tonnes of cargo. The capacities of Caspian ports were taken into account when the ship was built. This is just as much as the ports can handle at the moment. That is why ships from Kazakhstan cannot work to their full capacity.

[Nikolay Lagutkin, chief engineer of Kazmortransflot national shipping company, in Russian with Kazakh translation overlaid] Our work is hampered by Makhachkala port in Russia. We need a depth of seven metres to moor in the fairway at the entrance to the harbour, but they only give a permit for six-and-a-half metres. Thus, every trip we lose up to 1,000 tonnes of cargo, this is the amount that we under-load the ship at Aktau.

[Correspondent] Kazakhstan is making efforts to solve the problem as soon as possible. The Almaty tanker is completely automated just like the Astana tanker. The crew consists of only 12 people. The ship meets the requirements of high international standards, all security measures are observed and it is safe for the environment.

[Abdigali Koyanbayev, director of Kazmortransflot national shipping company's shipbuilding department] Two weeks ago, the ship underwent all quality tests at Vyborg shipyard and was handed over to a special commission [from Kazakhstan].

[Correspondent] The Almaty tanker will ply the following routes: Aktau-Makhachkala [Dagestan] and Aktau-Baku [Azerbaijan]. It will carry oil from the Kumkol, Tengiz and Bozashy fields. The tanker is to make seven or eight trips a month and carry up to 1,000,000 tonnes of oil annually.

[Video shows the two tankers, the interior of a ship's command post, port scenes]

Source: BBC Monitoring Central Asia

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