Vladimir Shlyomin

T

here are 15 oil and gas deposits currently discovered on the Western Arctic shelf of Russia with more than 5 bln. tones in geological reserves. These deposits include three gas condensate ones namely Shtokmanovskoye, Rusanovskoye and Leningradskoye as well as medium size and major oil deposits like Prirazlomnoye, Medinskoye-Morie, Varandey-Morie and Yuzhno-Dolginskoye, which are difficult to develop due to complicated technical and technological problems and lack of infrastructure first of all the transport one.

The Program of Upgrading the Russian Transport System for a Period Until 2010 provides for strengthening the Russian fleet of icebreakers. In particular, it is supposed to extend service life of the existing atomic icebreakers and to build four units of 60 MWt atomic icebreakers of a new generation. In experts` opinion this fleet of icebreakers will make it possible to organize icebreaker assistance for large capacity tankers to shuttle between oil production areas and oil terminals.

Yury Yevdokimov, the governor of the Murmansk area, said that the program would be financed from the federal budget. According to him upgrading atomic icebreakers would first of all deal with nuclear steam generating plants to extend their service life up to 150 hours and then up to 175 hours in perspective. It is the fleet that will form the key link in the requisite transport infrastructure.

In parallel, ship builders have come up with another even more interesting option, namely to use "shuttle" tanker ships. Valeri Piskun, the head of the ship designing department at Baltic Ship Repair Yard (BSRY), says that such Arctic class tankers will be able to take oil both from off-shore platforms and terminals for transshipping oil produced from the Arctic seashore. The expected volume of oil production calls for quite a fleet of Arctic class tankers with 60-70 tones in deadweight able to operate the whole year through amid 1.5 m thick ice fields in shallow waters as the depth in oil loading areas does not exceed 19-20 m.
BSRY` s ship designers have already made a draft design of such an ice oil ship giving a special priority to its power plant, power capacity of which is supposed to be 30% more than that of regular oil tankers, that is of no surprise. Here a problem of economic efficiency arises assuming different modes of navigation either in the ice-free water or under heavy ice conditions. Therefore, it was decided to use a combined power plant providing for a diesel engine to navigate in ice-free water and an electric motor to step up the power capacity for running through ice.

Field tests confirmed the design performance of the ship, with its ice breaking capacity exceeding the expectations.

Compared to regular liner oil tankers "shuttle" oil tankers of this type will obviously be much more expensive. To enhance their economic efficiency it would be more preferable to use them on short transits to mid-course terminals, where the oil is to be transshipped. That is why they called the ship a "shuttle" tanker.

BSRY is ready to execute the program of building Arctic class oil tankers in full compliance with the strategic plan of the Arctic shelf development. According to the BSRY` s designers assuming the existing ship building capacity of the yard it would take them 24 months to build the lead ship and 7 months to build other ships of the series.

Development of the shelf deposits will obviously call for not only oil tankers but also ships of other types. Under an agreement with AO Rosshelf joint stock company BSRY has designed a multipurpose tow-supply ship to service floating drill rigs. This ship can also be used as an icebreaker either to protect off-shore platforms against ice load or to render icebreaker assistance to other ships. This ship is to be equipped with special systems for rescue and environment control missions e.g. to fight a fire, to evacuate oilmen from off-shore platforms or to control oil spills.

Simultaneously BSRY confirms its readiness to participate in the LNG marine freight program, which is of particular interest for Gazprom. When planning development of Shtokmanovskoye gas condensate field, the Russian gas monopolist decided to involve American companies, which in exchange of their participation in this perspective project were ready to share their LNG production technologies and some of their own LNG markets. The Russian ship builders expect to get a share in the supposed orders. BSRY is prepared to start designing a vessel to transport LNG under Arctic conditions.