ST. PETERSBURG, May 5 (RIA Novosti) - A St. Petersburg-based shipyard will start building the world's first offshore nuclear power plant on May 18, the city's governor said on Tuesday.

"There is no analogue to the plant, which is being built at the Baltiysky Zavod, in the world. If all goes well, we will have an excellent chance of entering the international market," Valentina Matviyenko said.

Baltiysky Zavod has so far finished assembling eight steam generators for the offshore NPP.

The contract to build the facility worth 9.9 billion rubles ($303 million) for the Rosatom state-run nuclear power corporation was signed in late February 2009.

Demand for offshore nuclear power plants is expected to be high in regions experiencing power shortages and requiring stable energy supplies.

A number of countries, including developing economies have already shown an interest in the project on condition that Russia develops a sample model first.

The Baltiysky Zavod shipyard is expected to complete the offshore NPP in the fourth quarter of 2012.