Italian owner Pietro Barbaro has further cemented ties with Russian energy major Rosneft with the signing today of a Memorandum of Understanding to form a joint international shipping venture.
Rosneft chairman Igor Sechin said: “We are glad about the effective extension of the cooperation with Pietro Barbaro: following our partnership in Russia, we are planning a joint approach to global markets. The joint venture will allow us to significantly boost the efficiency of our logistics division and to create additional marketing opportunities for our products in high-margin markets.”
The pair already know each other well having worked closely together on Russian domestic tanker trades.
Last September the Russian joint venture between Rosneft, Sberbank Investments and Pietro Barbaro closed the acquisition of the Pietro Barbaro shipping assets in the Russian Federation taking a 100% share of the Prime Shipping group of companies. Prime Shipping is involved in the Russian river and sea transportation tanker market.
Rosneft already has other transport joint ventures, most importantly Rosnefteflot – a business founded in 1998 with Russia’s largest line, Sovcomflot.