Rosneft-Gazprombank proposal to create consortium for building Zvezda shipyard accepted
The proposal to create a consortium to build the super shipyard Zvezda, put forward by Rosneft and Gazprombank, has been accepted, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin told Itar-Tass after a meeting on the development of shipbuilding in the Far East.
“The Ministry of Industry and United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) have agreed with this proposal. Now a final form of organizing all this will be found,” the deputy premier said.
Vice-Premier Dmitry Rogozin held a conference on the development of shipbuilding in the Far Eastern District in the city of Bolshoi Kamen, Primorsky Territory, on Monday. The Vice-Premier met, in particular, with major investors to discuss the future of the Zvezda super shipyard. The executives of Rosneft, Gazprom, NOVATEK, and Sovcomflot had been invited to the conference.
Before the conference, Rogozin had already met with Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin one-on-one, and they had achieved a "constructive mutual understanding" both on matters concerning the financing of construction and on the placing of orders with the Zvezda.
Originally the shipyard construction was to become a key project of the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC). The Zvezda is to build "superships" with deadweight of up to 250,000 tons and up to 300 meters long. The shipyard was established in 2009 and, according to plan, in the foreseeable future it was to turn out the first ships of ice-breaking class and gas carriers for the shelf projects of Rosneft and Gazprom. However, the construction of the enterprise fell behind schedule, with which Rogozin strongly reproched the USC way back at the beginning of this year.
Experts estimate the overall cost of the construction of the Zvezda at approximately 100,000 million rubles. However, according to the State program for shipbuilding, money was to be earmarked only beginning from 2016-2017 (about 27,000 million rubles). In May, Rogozin upheld bringing forward a timeframe for State financing of the Zvezda to 2014. However, difficulties with financing of the project are persisting.