Primorsky Region, September 4 - Neftegaz.RU. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi have visited the Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex located in Bolshoy Kamen.
The capacities of the modern shipyard will allow building ice-class vessels, tankers, gas carriers and marine equipment of any complexity. This year, Zvezda has been chosen as the sole contractor for the construction of a flagship 120 MW Leader nuclear icebreaker.
«This is the most powerful icebreaking vessel in the world. This icebreaking vessel will be able to break through 4 meter ice, – said Vladimir Putin. – The decision was made to build these ice-class vessels to provide year-round pilotage of ships along the northern route.»
During the visit, the delegation learned about the progress of the Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex construction project.
Reporting to the leaders of the 2 states, Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin said: «The Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex project is being implemented by the consortium of investors led by Rosneft. Currently, the key facilities of the 1st stage have been put into operation, such as an open outfitting berth, a hull production facility, and painting cabinets. The construction of the second stage is progressing ahead of schedule.»
The delegation examined the key operational premise of the 2nd phase of the construction - the largest dry dock in Russia, which will be commissioned three years ahead of schedule, in 2020. The construction of the key outfit shops for the dry dock will also begin in advance, in September 2019.
The technical specifications of the dry dock will allow the construction of most types of existing and prospective ships with virtually no limit to the tonnage and launching weight of the hulls. The dry dock under construction sized 485x114x15 m is the single one in Russia with such characteristics and one of the largest hydraulic structures in the world.
During the construction of the dock, 140,000 cu m of concrete were poured and 6,600 drilled shafts were driven in. The dry dock is equipped with the giant Goliath crane. Its height is 120 m, width is 189 m. This is the 2nd crane of this type installed at the Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex. The 1st crane has been facilitating the work of the heavy open outfitting slip since 2018. Soon, the dry dock will be equipped with four 60 tonnes tower cranes with straight arms and a dock gate will be installed.
Vladimir Putin and Narendra Modi learned about a breakthrough product for Russia- the ice-class vessel steerable thruster designed at the Sapphire Applied Engineering and Training Centre.
The capacity of the project for localisation of design and production of steerable thrusters with the power of up to 20 MW. With this aim, 2 joint ventures were established - the Sapphire Applied Engineering and Training Centre (St. Petersburg) and the Sapphire Steerable Thrusters Plant (Bolshoy Kamen).
Sapphire’s main task is to localise the manufacturing of steerable thrusters. The design capacity of the plant allows satisfying the demand for this equipment for vessels of various classes including high ice-class gas carriers. Steerable thrusters are key components of the vessel electromotive system.
The plant will manufacture high ice-class steerable thrusters with the capacity from 7.5 MW to 20 MW.
The Head of Rosneft said: «The order portfolio keeps growing and comprises 39 vessels (59 vessels incl. options) at the moment. Rosneft has placed orders for 28 vessels. Currently, there are 9 vessels under construction, including support vessels and gas-burning Arfamax tankers that comply with the latest environmental standards. Preparations are underway for the construction of high ice-class gas carrier vessels with a capacity of 172 cu m for operation in the Russian Arctic. Potential orders include: a series of gas carriers for the Arctic LNG-2 project and medium gas-burning MR tankers and the world’s most powerful icebreaking vessel Leader.»
During the visit, Igor Sechin also reported to Vladimir Putin on the company’s status for commencing the construction of the Far Eastern LNG plant.
The plant capacity will amount to 6.2 million tonnes of LNG per year. The resource base of the plant will be the fields of the Sakhalin-1 project and Rosneft’s own gas reserves on the Sakhalin shelf in the total amount of over 350 billion cu m.
Rosneft’s calculations show that, throughout the project implementation, over 5 trillion RUB will be added to the budget and 5,000 working places will be created, while 700 permanent working places will be maintained during the project operation.
To read the full story in Russian.
