The TV3 program “Nekā Personīga” reports that 10 years ago the Port of Riga bought an old rusty icebreaker from Russia. It hasn’t been used since I bought it. Now it has been decided to sell the ship, but the sale amount will not even cover the amount spent on repairing the 40-year-old ship. The Freeport of Riga has not managed to sell the icebreaker purchased by the previous management in several unsuccessful auctions. Since 2013, it has not performed its direct work – breaking the ice – once.
The TV3 program “Nekā Personīga” reports that 10 years ago the Port of Riga bought an old rusty icebreaker from Russia. It hasn’t been used since I bought it. Now it has been decided to sell the ship, but the sale amount will not even cover the amount spent on repairing the 40-year-old ship. The Freeport of Riga has not managed to sell the icebreaker purchased by the previous management in several unsuccessful auctions. Since 2013, it has not performed its direct work – breaking the ice – once.
The port of Riga and the Gulf of Riga froze over for the last time in 2011. At that time, the icebreaker VARMA cleared the fairways from the ice. The TALLINK ferry that runs regularly to Stockholm, which technically also has the class of an ice ship and was able to make its own way between ice floes, helped. Sailors remember that 12 years ago there was ice in the sea for 124 days due to frost. Cargo ships are late.
In 2013, the manager of the Freeport of Riga was Leonids Loginovs, the chairman of the board was Andris Ameriks. At that time, the reprimands of the State Audit Office and other supervisors for the dubious financial transactions of the Freeport had not yet been heard, which is why Loginov and his deputy Aigars Pečak later ended up on the court bench.
At the end of 2013, the Freeport managed by Loginov decided to purchase the icebreaker FOROS from the port of Murmansk in Russia. It is much smaller and not as powerful as the VARMA that has been working in the port for years. As shown by the pictures of the ship at that time, which are available on the Marina Traffic radar, the vessel bought from Russia does not look very good visually.
The ship “FOROS” was built more than 40 years ago in Finland. Used in Moldova and Russia. Therefore, most of the inscriptions on it are still in Russian. In the winter of 2013, it came to Riga, but FOROS was not in a condition to meet the technical requirements set by the Latvian Maritime Administration.
As explained by Kaspars Ozoliņš, a member of the board of the direct owner of the ship – the capital company “LVR Flote”, which is 100% owned by the Riga Freeport Authority, the ship underwent a major overhaul. It was not only completely repainted, but also the metal parts of the board were changed, the mechanisms, the engine were repaired.
In 2017, it was registered in the Latvian Ship Register, and only in August 2019, the icebreaker received a five-year permit issued by the Maritime Administration to sail in Latvian waters.
Kaspars Ozoliņš explains that, in fact, work is carried out every day so that all mechanisms are kept in operational readiness. “So we heat here, we maintain, we check regularly”, says Ozoliņš.
The purchase of the ship during Loginov’s time cost 1.2 million US dollars, or a little over 915 thousand euros. But even more has been invested in its repair and maintenance. Ozoliņš says that various refinements and improvements have been made, both visually and technically, so that the ship can fully fulfill its duties.
According to Freeport’s calculations, the thorough repair, which lasted for several years, cost 1.3 million euros. After that, in 2018, 2019 and 2020, 327 thousand was spent on overhauling air compressors, repairing stern winch and deck crane, fuel pumps, diesel engine heads and crank, gas distribution system, heat exchange system and electro-hydraulic steering system were also repaired.
However, as Ozoliņš admits, the FOROS ship has never been used for ice breaking.
“It’s just like it rains when you don’t have an umbrella. Well, actually just the opposite – take an umbrella with you, there is no rain that day. The situation is exactly the same here,” Ozoliņš describes the situation figuratively.
Both the previous Freeport board and the currently appointed board members believe that the icebreaker should be sold. Three auctions have been held so far. The last one ended this year. The starting price of the auction was 1.3 million euros – exactly the same as was invested in the overhaul of the ship. But there was no interested party who would be ready to buy the ship for such an amount.
It is not only expensive to maintain and repair old icebreakers, but also to start them up and transport them. The icebreaker VARMA has been put into use at the port of Liepāja. It is estimated that the trip to Liepāja alone cost about 100 thousand euros. The cost of VARMA and FOROS for one working day, including huge fuel consumption, amounts to around 10 thousand euros per day.
The certificate of seaworthiness in FOROS issued by the Maritime Safety Inspection of the Maritime Administration of Latvia expires on December 31 of this year. To pass it, substantial sums may have to be invested in the icebreaker again, so that its technical condition meets the requirements. If the ship fails to be sold at auction by then, its value will be even lower later.
Mārtiņš Ziemainis, deputy manager of the Freeport of Riga for legal and administrative issues, explains that after December 31, the ship will actually have a scrap value.
The owner of the icebreaker “LVR Flote”, however, believes that they will still be able to negotiate with the maritime administration to postpone the inspections. If the administration does not agree to it, the ship will have to be preserved until it can be sold. Freeport plans to buy a new ice-class ship with hybrid-type engines in 2025 through fund money. The total purchase costs could be around 7 million euros, half of which would have to be paid by the Freeport.
The former mayor of Riga, Mārtiņš Staķis, states that this is not the first time that bills have to be paid for cases made by the previous administration. “At least one good example is Riga traffic, where this bill is 14 million,” reminds Staķis.
Companies that organize polar expeditions to the North Pole are interested in purchasing a FOROS icebreaker. But our Estonian neighbors had to rent or charter an icebreaker in one of the previous winters, and it cost 5 million. Perhaps because of this, the Ministry of Defense of the neighboring country bought its own icebreaker, which is currently being used in the port of Tallinn.
