First Zvezda vessels to be Rosneft supply ships
VLADIVOSTOK. March 2 (Interfax) - The first vessels that will be built at the Zvezda shipyard in the Primorye territory will be supply vessels for Rosneft's offshore Arctic fields, Yury Filchenok, general director of OJSC Far East Plant Zvezda, where the new yard is being built, told reporters.
It is anticipated that Rosneft will soon order four such vessels from the yard.
"We plan for Rosneft to order the first of four supply ships this year. An offshore platform needs 14 supply vessels, and most of them have to be chartered abroad, to there's a lot of demand for them," Filchenok said.
Vessels with these specifications have only been built in Finland, Norway and some other countries.
Filchenok said preparations to build the first vessel at Zvezda would begin this autumn and that specialists from western Russia, Germany and South Korea would be involved.
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said the Zvezda complex should start work in January 2016.
OJSC Far East Plant Zvezda in Bolshoy Kamen, Primorye Territory, is the leading shipbuilding complex in the east of Russia, specializing in the repair, reequipment and modernization of nuclear submarines. At present the project of creating a modern complex for the construction of civilian vessels and oil platforms is being implemented on the basis of the plant. Investments in the project are estimated at 111 billion rubles, of which 27.5 billion rubles from the federal budget.
After launch of the production lines at the shipyard, in Bolshoi Kamen, manufacture will begin of the topside modules for stationary complexes to develop offshore fields in the Arctic, mobile drilling rigs (semisubmersible and jack-up), shelf support ships, including supertankers, as well as icebreakers. It will be able to build vessels weighing up to 300 million and ships with a launch weight of 13,000 tonnes.
