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St. Petersburg-based bunker supplier Baltic Fuel Company (BFC) says that it has 'made a bargain' purchase of four river tugs as part of the expansion of its oil transportation business.

The 2400 hp tugs, purchased at an undisclosed price, are each intended to be used to push vessels, including oil tankers used for the transportation of oil products with a flash point of over 60 degrees centigrade.

The first serial tug, a one-deck twin-screw push boat EvroStar-2, has sailed to the Russian sea port of Rostov-on-Don and is currently undergoing registration.

The tugs will be transported from the ports of Rostov-on-Don and Azov through the Russian Federation inland waterways to the port of St. Petersburg up until the end of August.

Once in St. Petersburg, the tugs will be equipped with drawbars - purchased from Taisei Engineering Japanese Corporation - to make barge-tug connection apparatus.

According to Stanislav Korneev, General Director of BFC, the barge-tug connection apparatus will start operating in the Russian Federation's inland waterways from next year. Oil products will be delivered from the refineries of Russian oil companies to the port of St. Petersburg.

BFC this year launched a new revenue stream for the business - the transportation of petroleum products along the country's inland waterways. Up until now the company's main focus has been on bunker fuel supply, oil product exports and providing integrated services for environmental safety and OSR operations.

The aim of the new divison is to help the company become more independent and mobile in the supply of petroleum products.

Commenting on the new operation, Korneev said: "This year our company has started to develop a new business - transportation of oil products in Russian inland waterways. This February we placed the order at the Baltiysky plant (St. Petersburg, Russia) for construction of four oil barges of 24000 cbm total capacity. During the construction, we decided to modernize the barges, strictly complying with the requirements of such organizations as BP-Shipping."

Earlier this year, BFC said that its was fast becoming a leading bunker company in Russia's northwest region thanks to the expansion of its own tanker fleet to 30 vessels.

In April 2011, BFC put into service the 2,570 deadweight tonne (dwt) double hull tanker Captain Shiryaev and the 5,000 dwt double hull tanker Captain Ponikarovsky as part of its vessel newbuild programme.