Russia's Academician Boris Petrov research vessel goes to sea after four years of repairs in China - agency
MOSCOW. Jan 9 (Interfax) - Russia's Academician Boris Petrov research vessel has left the Chinese port of Tianjin after a repair which dragged out over four years, a spokesperson for the Federal Agency for Scientific Organizations (FANO of Russia) told Interfax.
"The repairing of the Academician Boris Petrov research vessel at the Chinese port of Tianjin is complete. On January 5 the ship, with a team of scientists on board, headed for a scientific journey. The expedition, which will take place in the Indian Ocean, is unique," the agency said in a statement obtained by Interfax on Monday.
The scientists are planning to conduct geophysical work on the Eastern Indian Ridge. The P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, to which the vessel belongs, says that Indian Ocean studies are very important for Russian scientists because Russian geophysicists have not worked in the region for a long time and thus obtained no new results. The crew will also conduct hydrophysical and ecological studies in the Indian Ocean.
The Academician Boris Petrov vessel found itself at the center of a scandal in 2015 with another scientific vessel, Academician Nikolai Strakhov.
Both were moored at foreign ports without the funding needed for repair and moorage. The financial problems arose when the Russian Academy of Sciences had its institutes re-subordinated to the Federal Agency for Scientific Organization as part of a widespread reform in Russian science.
The situation with the research vessels was resolved after the Russian government intervened.
As a result, in 2015 the former ship owner, the Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry, paid the Chinese port over $400,000 owed for the moorage of the Academician Boris Petrov vessel, which it then handed over to the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology. Subsequently, the institute's specialists oversaw repairs at the dockyard in Tianjin.
The second vessel, Academician Nikolai Strakhov, was repaired in Sri Lanka back in December 2015 and by the end of January of 2016 returned to its port of Kaliningrad, having conducted a number of studies along the way. The Nikolai Strakhov vessel cost $570,000 to repair, a FANO spokesperson said at the time.
It was reported earlier that the Federal Agency for Scientific Organizations was planning to create a special entity in charge of maintenance and safe operation of the research vessel fleet. Meanwhile, in 2016 Russia planned total funding for maritime scientific expeditions at a level of around 900 million rubles, the agency said.