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Gazpromneft Marine Bunker Ltd, operator of Gazprom Neft's bunkering business, has performed its first bunker fuel delivery during the 2016 navigation season to a vessel operated by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd - the world's second-largest cruise company.

On May 8, the Gazpromneft East bunkering vessel supplied the Celebrity Silhouette, which was carrying out a 12-day voyage from Amsterdam via Rostock, Tallinn, St Petersburg, Helsinki, Stockholm and Copenhagen.

The volume of fuels used for this cruise is roughly 1,000 tonnes of intermediate fuel oil (IFO) and 200 tonnes of marine gas oil (MGO). The bunkering operation took place in the port of St Petersburg.

Gazpromneft Marine Bunker has been supplying cruise vessels operated by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd since 2008. The total volume of fuel supplied to the Miami-headquartered firm has exceeded 200,000 tonnes over the last five years, according to the Russian firm.

In 2014, Gazpromneft Marine Bunker received the special 'For Valuable Contribution' award from Royal Caribbean as one of the its most reliable suppliers.

During the 2015 cruise season, Gazpromneft Marine Bunker said it delivered almost 40,000 metric tonnes to Royal Caribbean.

"Our cooperation with the partners is guided by the principle of highest possible compliance of the quality of our service and the range of fuels to the customers' demands," commented Andrei Vasiliev, CEO of Gazpromneft Marine Bunker, in a statement this week.

"Depending upon the vessels' technical specifications and itineraries we deliver traditional IFO and MGO fuels as well as ULSFO [ultra-low-sulphur fuel oil] fuel that complies with the ecological regulations and is suitable for vessels' operations within the Emission Control Areas," he added.

Gazpromneft Marine Bunker reported in March that it sold 3.7 million tonnes of marine fuel in 2015, and that it had a 21 percent share of Russia's bunkering market at the end of 2015.

Meanwhile, Gazpromneft Lubricants LLC, another subsidiary of Gazprom Neft, last month claimed that it is Russia's leading supplier of marine oils by volume with a market share of 26 percent, following a more-than-threefold increase in sales from 2,500 tonnes in 2014 to 8,000 tonnes last year.