The Russian Vessel A.A Sidorenko, which has been taken on wet lease from the State Geological Enterprise Yuzhmorgeologiya under the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation from July, 1999 completed six cruises to the Central Indian Ocean Basin and collected about 80 tonnes of polymetallic nodules for extractive metallurgy. A cruise was taken off Tuticorin for making an assessment of the site selected for Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) programme.