A cooperation agreement has recently been signed by Aker Arctic Technology Inc. and Samsung Heavy Industries for assistance in the design of the tankers for Arctic project Novy Port.
Novy Port is a new loading terminal development, planned in the Gulf of Ob, which will be used for oil shipments from a nearby oil field to Murmansk. Gazprom Neft will construct the loading terminal and Samsung Heavy Industries has been contracted to construct six tankers for the oil shipments. A cooperation agreement was signed with Aker Arctic, which includes e.g. model tests for the tankers and assistance in the design.
Two icebreakers based on Aker ARC 130 A concept developed by Aker Arctic will be constructed for assisting the tankers in the harbour and on their route to the terminal and during loading operations.
The first vessel with similar concept (Aker ARC 130) is currently being built in Finland for the Finnish Transport Agency and will be the first LNG-fuelled icebreaker. The icebreakers for Gazprom Neft will be slightly different as they will not use LNG as fuel and will have a stronger hull and more power than the Finnish icebreaker.