Finland’s engineering company Aker Arctic has signed a cooperation agreement with the South Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) for the assistance in the design of the tankers for the 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 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. Russia’s Vyborg Shipyard will built the icebreakers.
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.
Aker Arctic has also recently completed sea trials of its oblique icebreaking rescue vessel Baltika, the first ship ever built with an asymmetric hull that allows her to break ice not only ahead and astern, but also sideways.
Baltika is owned by the Federal Agency for Maritime and River Transport of Russia (Rosmorrechflot) and operated by the Russian Marine Emergency Rescue Service (FGI Gosmorspassluzhba).
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