Russian oil company Rosneft has made plans to build an unspecified number of shuttle tankers to be used for oil transport from its Arctic fields.
Namely, Rosneft, its subsidiary Rosnefteflot, and Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex have signed an agreement of intent that envisages placing orders with Zvezda Shipbuilding for building reinforced ice-class shuttle tankers (Arc6-Arc7) with the deadweight of about 70 thousand tons.
Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex is being created on the basis of the Zvezda Far Eastern Shipyard by the consortium of Rosneftegaz, Rosneft and Gazprombank. The shipyard secured its pilot work with Rosneft, which signed an exclusive agreement on placing all orders for new marine equipment and shipbuilding with the shipyard.
Rosneft said on Friday that, according to this new agreement, the parties will jointly develop the technical documentation – the tanker specifications and determine the list of manufacturers of basic equipment.
The shuttle tankers built at Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex will be Russian-flagged vessels and will transport oil from Rosneft’s Arctic fields.
The Russian oil company also added that the number of the tankers will be specified after development of technical documentation and definition of core technical characteristics of the fleet.