Through ice reefs to “Zvezda”
The construction of ice-class ships is a strong factor for the development of shipbuilding in Russia. New icebreakers are being built intensely, not without delays, though. Meanwhile, the launch of Shipbuilding Complex “Zvezda” will let Russia build ice-class supply ships and large tankers.
To escape getting stuck in shipbuilding ice
Amid intense development of the Arctic, Russia badly needs powerful nuclear-powered icebreakers. Three multipurpose nuclear-powered icebreakers, Arktika, Sibir and Ural, are currently being built in Saint-Petersburg. The lead and the first serial ship are undergoing fitting out at the berth. The launching of the second serial icebreaker, the Ural, is scheduled to coincide with 163rd anniversary of the Baltiysky Zavod shipyard (May 2019).
The above mentioned LK-60 icebreakers of Project 22220 should be delivered by 2024 as well as four 40MW icebreakers which are to be deployed in the Gulf of Ob and in western seas.
Besides, a decision on construction of the 3rd and the 4th serial icebreakers of Project 22220, LK-60 (the 4th and the 5th in the series of nuclear-powered icebreakers – Ed.) was made at the working meeting held on 28 November 2018 by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev at Baltiysky Zavod shipyard in Saint-Petersburg. The contract on construction of two more nuclear-powered icebreakers is to be signed in QI’2018. Mixed financing is supposed for the two LK-60 icebreakers estimated at RUB 100 billion. RUB 45 billion will come from the federal budget, RUB 10 billion – from Rosatom Corporation with loan-based funding to cover the rest of the cost. The delivery is scheduled for 2025.
What’s more, a decision has been made on construction of a 120 MW nuclear-powered icebreaker known as Leader. Read more about Leader icebreaker project in one of our articles >>>>
Central Design Bureau “Iceberg” has earlier won a competition for implementation of R&D project “Development of approval documentation for construction of a Leader icebreaker of Project 10510” with a contract price of RUB 380 million. The works under the contract are to be implemented in three phases with the first one to be completed by 20 December 2018, the second one – by 31 July 2019, the third one – by 29 November 2019.
According to the decision of RF Government, the contract on construction of Leader icebreaker will be implemented by Shipbuilding Complex “Zvezda” in the Primorsky Territory.
Apart from nuclear-powered icebreakers, Russia has to build diesel-electric ones. The Victor Chernomyrdin icebreaker of 22600 design (25 MW) is the key project in this segment. However, its construction started back in 2012 has been delayed several times. The year of 2018 brought more misfortunes: a fire on the Viktor Chernomyrdin icebreaker was caused by an explosion on November 27. Sea trials planned to be held before the end of 2018 have been postponed to the first quarter of 2019. That is because of a large share of imported equipment, including that of the USA origin. For certain reasons it should be replaced with equipment manufacture in other countries.
Moreover, FSUE Rosmorport is going to have nine icebreakers built additionally by 2024. As Rosmorport told IAA PortNews, two icebreakers will have a capacity of 18 MW each (one for the Baltic Sea and the other for the Far East), two auxiliary icebreakers will have a capacity of 12-14 MW (for the Baltic Sea and Arkhangelsk, designing process is underway), one port icebreaker of 6-8 MW in capacity is intended for the North-West (designing process is underway), and four shallow-draft icebreakers have been ordered to SC “Zvezda”.
Meanwhile, the year of 2018 saw the delivery of two 22MW icebreaking support ships of Project IBSV01 (Icebreaker 8 class) built by Vyborg Shipyard (a company of United Shipbuilding Corporation) and inended for operation at the Arctic terminal of the Novoportovskoye field (western part of the Gulf of Ob).
On December 226, Amur Shipyard delivered the Ivan Sidorenko, new supply ship of Project 22420, to Gazprom Flot. The second ship in the series named Ostap Sheremet is to be delivered to the customer by April 2019.
Arctic star
Shipbuilding Complex “Zvezda” which is under construction in the Primorsky Territory will be of great importance for Russian shipbuilding. In the second six-month period of 2018, Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex’s portfolio of orders grew by 42 percent, and currently Zvezda has contracts for construction of 37 vessels.
Zvezda’s anchor customer is Rosneft, which placed an order for 26 vessels, including 12 Arc6 and Arc7 ice-class tankers, 4 ice-class multi-purpose support vessels, and 10 Aframax tankers.
Rosmorport ordered 1 shallow-draft icebreaker. The contract also provides for an option to build three similar vessels.
In September 2018, stevedoring companies signed a set of agreements with Rosneft placing orders with Zvezda for a series of two next generation large-capacity Aframax tankers, both of which will then be time-chartered to Rosneft for 20 years each.
Additionally, Sovcomflot will provide technical supervision during the construction of the five similar LNG-fuelled Aframax tankers for Rosneft, also ordered at Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex. Upon the delivery of these vessels, Sovcomflot provide the shipowner with a range of services to ensure the effective and safe management of these vessels, including the recruitment of high-skilled crews and their management. Sovcomflot’s first ‘Green Funnel’ Aframax tanker is the Gagarin prospect.
Sovcomflot also ordered at Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex 3 medium-range tankers of the MR class.
Gazprom is going to have 17 vessels and two floating drilling units built by Zvezda by 2035. Between 2021 and 2023, the company is going to place orders for the construction of three supply vessels, which will be used for towing operations, anchor handling and cargo delivery to production and drilling platforms, one passenger vessel for platform crews and one multifunctional ship to service an offshore production facility.
Totally, the production programme of Zvezda foresees the construction of 178 vessels and offshore facilities of different types by 2035. The programme is based on the demand of the key customers and the capabilities of the shipyard with its loading of about 80%.
The construction of Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex is to be completed ahead of schedule, in 2020. Part of the facilities have already been put into operation. Initially it was scheduled to complete the construction in 2024.
The construction of Arctic ships is expected to go along with phasing out of imports and establishing of local ship equipment manufactures. For that purpose a dedicated center was established at the premises of CNII Kurs as we wrote earlier >>>>
Vitaly Chernov
