The base was sold last year after then-Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said it was no longer considered as core asset for the military and therefor authorized its sale. Serdyukov was sacked in November after his ministry was caught up in a multi-billion corruption scandal. One of the objects in question was the Northern fleet’s oil terminal in Mokhnatkina Pakhta.
The oil terminal was sold for 452 million rubles, some 240 million rubles less than the value of the installations, BarentsObserver reported.
Russia’s Defense Ministry in Moscow is now trying to get back the facilities, both arguing that it is of strategic significance for the navy, and claiming the sale was unlawful, reports Kommersant.
Originally, the terminal was used to fuel the Northern fleet’s tankers. Heavy fuel oil arrived to the terminal by rail, was reloaded to tankers that again supplied the Northern fleet’s surface vessels based in Severomorsk. Today, the terminal serves as a re-loading oil terminal like several other re-loading terminals in the Kola bay, where oil from Western Siberia is sent by rail to Murmansk and re-loaded to tankers sailing it to the world markets.
The case will now be raised for the Arbitration Court in Moscow with the claim to invalidate the sale that includes the railway track, oil tanks, filling pipes and other facilities.
