Baltic Sea Tug Agency performed unique operation on towing jack-up floating drilling rig ‘Arkticheskaya’ at the port of Ust-Luga

On 2 June 2017, four tugboats of Baltic Sea Tug Agency (BSTA, port of Ust-Luga, Leningrad Region) performed a unique operation on towing Gazprom Flot’s Arkticheskaya jack-up floating drilling rig, BSTA told IAA PortNews.

The operation was successfully performed from the anchorage No 11 of Ust-Luga seaport to the Novaya Gavan (New Harbour) terminal. The operation lasted for 5 hours and involved the following tugboats of the company: Taimen, Navaga, Sevryuga and Beluga.

The pilots for the operation were provided by FSUE Rosmorport. 

Jack-up drilling rig 6500/100 "Arkticheskaya" of Project 15402M was put into operation in April 2014. The Arkticheskaya is intended for drilling exploratory oil / gas wells on the shelf of the Arctic and elsewhere at sea depth of 7-100 m to the depth of up to 6,500 m. 

The rig is 88 m long, 66 m wide, 9.7 m deep and 139 m high.

Baltic Sea Tug Agency offers round-the-year services on deep-sea and port-to-port towing, rescue operations, delivery of pilots to/from vessels, support of diving operations and underwater engineering works. In summer period, the company’s fleet can be involved in hydrographic activities, comprehensive servicing of dredgers including security services. BSTA operates at key ports in the Gulf of Finland with its base at the commercial sea port of Ust-Luga. In winter, BSTA ships can be deployed for ice cutting along the berths and for ice escorts. BSTA fleets consists of ice-class azimuth tugboats of 3,600 to 5,200 h.p. as well as small tugs and engineering ships to support underwater and hydraulic engineering, dredging and hydrographical operations. All vessels of the company are fitted with rescue equipment and can perform firefighting and oil spill response activities.