An official launching ceremony for the 7100DWT M/V Olga Golovushkina, the first mixed 'river-sea' sailing Volga-Don max tanker of project RST22M, on March 7 2015 was held at Armada Shipyard (part of Palmali Group), the series designer Marine Engineering Bureau said.
Steel cutting was held on April 11 2014. A ceremonial keel-laying took place on May 21, 2014. The tanker delivery is scheduled for June 2015.
23 tankers of the Armada first series and the New Armada second and third series have entered service with the Palmali Group's fleet and are engaged in mixed river-sea transport, carrying from Russian river ports heavy fuel oil, diesel fuel and other oil products and vegetable oils, and in maritime transport in the Caspian, Black, Mediterranean, Baltic and North seas, including winter voyages around Europe and in the Irish Sea. Eight more tankers are currently under construction at three different shipyards.
Vessels of this third series is an evolution of 005RST01-design tankers, known as Armada first series, previously designed by the Marine Engineering Bureau for Palmali Group and completed between 2002 and 2006 at Tuzla, Turkey based SELAH and ADA yards and a second modification of second series of tankers of project RST22, which were built at Nizhny Novgorod based Krasnoye Sormovo Shipyard in 2008-2009. All in all, the shipyards have built 10 Armada-series tankers of project 005RST01 and seven New Armada-series tankers of project RST22 (five of them for Palmali Group).
A distinctive feature of RST22M, RST22, 005RST01 and RST12 design tankers is full revolving rudder propellers, increased trunk and submersible cargo pumps. They have no longitudinal bulkhead in CL, no framing in cargo tanks, use submersible pumps and have developed trunk.
The Volga-Don Max class satisfy the Volga-Don Canal and the Volga-Baltic Waterway dimensions. Length of RST22M vessel is 139.95 m, breadth – 16.6 m, depth – 6.0 m.
The new design tankers feature reinforced marine capabilities as compared with the Armada first series, with their deadweight increased by 750 tonnes at sea and increased capacity of cargo tanks while maintaining river capabilities.
The vessels fully meet new international requirements to transportation of vegetable oils including two-compartment subdivision.
The design was tailored to meet the specific requirements of Russian and global oil companies, additional ecological restrictions of the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping «ECO PROJECT» (ECO-S).
Total capacity of six cargo tanks and two slop tanks is 8089 cbm, sea DWT - 7103 tonnes with draft of 4.60 m and river DWT 4760 tonnes with draft of 3.6 m, operational speed - 10.5 knots.
The series tankers propulsion system includes two medium-speed diesel engines, 1,200 kW each, operating on IFO380.
In comparison with the previous Armada series the modified tanker design took into account all the new requirements of international conventions and rules of the Register (MARPOL requirements for access in the space of double sides and double bottom, etc.). The new series tankers feature more powerful cargo pumps (six pumps with capacity of 200 cbm / h versus 150 cbm / h in previous series), which reduced the time cargo operations by approximately 2.5 hours. In addition, the new project includes submersible ballast pumps (no stern manifold) and significantly changed engine room equipment layout
The lead and second vessel of Project RST22M M/V Olga Golovushkina was laid down on May 21, 2014 at Armada Shipyard.