Vyborg Shipyard stops plans for construction of a new shipyard in Primorsk, General Director Valery Levchenko said yesterday. The new shipyard was to specialize in construction of LNG tankers from Russian offshore fields, namely from Shtokman field, BarentsObserver reports.
In 2008 Gazprom said it would place a $600m order for two LNG carriers at Vyborg Shipyard and two more tankers in future. These plans inspired the owners of the shipyard to prepare for the construction of a new Primorsk shipyard in Leningradskaya Oblast. The necessary investments were guaranteed by the state-owned Vneshekonombank, which was ready to open a €1bn credit line for the project.
However the new situation on the global gas market made Gazprom postpone the realization of most of its offshore projects and the contract was not signed, Byulleten Nedvizhimosti reports. Vyborg Shipyard will have to correct the existing contract with Gazprom that includes construction of two drilling rigs for the Shtokman field. The platforms are scheduled to be delivered in December, 2010 and March, 2011, i.e. much earlier than the realistic terms of the Shtokman start-up. According to Levchenko, Gazprom is going to use these platforms in the “Sakhalin-3” project in the Far-East of Russia.
This decision will obviously increase the total cost of the contract because of higher transportation expenses and also bring disadvantage to the shipbuilding industry in Murmansk. Initially the Murmansk Shipyard No35 was to do the final works on conjunction of the lower and upper units of the drilling platforms. Now this work will most likely be done at shipyards in South Korea, BN writes.