The St. Petersburg-based shipyard, Russia's oldest, is building for Sovcomflot, Russia's largest shipping company, a series of two 70,000-deadweight enhanced ice-class tankers, designed to ship oil from Prirazlomnoye, an Arctic oil field operated by Gazprom subsidiary Sevmorneftegaz.
"Not every plant or country is capable of constructing such unique vessels. Such a tanker is highly desirable for operations in Arctic conditions. This is a first in this direction... The vessel will go to sea next summer," said Vladimir Alexandrov, general director of the Admiralty Shipyard.
Sovcomflot chief Sergei Frank said the construction of another ice-class tanker, the Kirill Lavrov, will begin in St. Petersburg on November 10.
Construction of the Mikhail Ulyanov started in 2007, and is to be completed in the summer of 2009.
Sovcomflot took delivery of the country's first Arctic shuttle tanker, the Vasily Dinkov, from Samsung Heavy Industries last year.
The Vasily Dinkov, along with its sister tankers - the Shturman Albanov and the Kapitan Gotsky - have an ice-enhanced hull structure, designed in accordance with LU6 (1A Super) ice-class, under the classification of the Russian Register of Shipping.
They will be able to operate in temperatures of minus 40 degrees C, breaking ice up to 1.5 meters thick without an icebreaker escort.
The ships are also equipped with two Azipod propulsion units, with a total power output of 20 MW. They all have a dynamic positioning system for use in ice, and a helicopter pad.
