OREANDA-NEWS. December 28, 2009. The launching and naming ceremony for new tanker Kirill Lavrov, another ship in the series of Arctic shuttle tankers of 70,000 tonnes dwt ordered by SCF Group from the shipbuilders of St. Petersburg, took place at the Admiralty Shipyards on 18 December 2009. For the first time such unique high-tech vessels are being constructed at Russia’s shipbuilding yards. Arctic shuttle tankers have been specially designed to transport oil by sea Russia’s offshore oil fields in the Arctic.

The event was attended by the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, the Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Ivanov, the Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, the Governor of St. Petersburg, the Minister of transport Igor Levitin, the Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, the President and CEO of OAO Sovcomflot Sergey Frank, the Acting President of OAO United Shipbuilding Corporation Roman Trotsenko, the General Director of the Admiralty Shipyards Vladimir Aleksandrov, the General Director of OOO Gazprom Neft Shelf Alexandr Mandel, close relatives of the USSR People’s actor Kirill Lavrov, members of theatrical community of St. Peterburg.

The vessel has been named after Russia’s outstanding theatre and cinema actor Kirill Yuriyevich Lavrov. It is rather symbolic, that a famous USSR People’s actress Alisa Freyndlikh, who many years worked together with Kirill Lavrov at the Bolshoy Drammatichesky Theatre named after Tovstonogov (St. Petersburg). It has become a good tradition in Sovcomflot to name the ships after prominent Russian citizens whose life and work were devoted to Russia, and the Arctic shuttle tanker Kirill Lavrov joined the series of “personalized” ships.

Unique technological solutions which can be used for implementing oil and gas offshore projects in the Arctic and Far-Eastern seas were applied for the construction of Kirill Lavrov. The ships of the series are being built in accordance with the Rules of Dual Registry of the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping and Lloyd’s Register. Arctic shuttle tankers apply the proprietary principle of double action, using a specially designed ice-breaking stern in heavy ice and a bow for open water (the bow lines have been specially designed). The tankers are equipped with two Azipod propulsion units (a 360° rotary azimuth electric steering complex), by a dynamic positioning system, a helicopter pad and a bow loading system.

- The form of the aft end and the structural strength of the ship’s ice strake allow the tanker to navigate, breaking ice of up to 1.2 m thick without an icebreaker escort.

- The complex of technical solutions implemented on board the ship provides for comfort conditions for the crew’s work and accommodation, and the operability of the ship’s equipment and devices in low temperatures up to -40°C. Individual cabins, a mess, a gym, a sauna with an indoor swimming pool, satellite TV and telephone system, access to the Internet are provided on board the ship for the life activity of the 25 seamen crew.

- The tanker’s length is 257m, breadth moulded is 34m and the draft is 14m. Diesel-electric engine provides for the total of 17MW propulsion capacity.

The tankers of the series are to be registered in the Russian International Ship Register, with St. Petersburg being the port of registry.

At the meeting of the State Council Presidium held in Ulyanovsk on 24 November 2009, Valentina Matviyenko, Governor of St. Petersburg, described the construction of such high-tech ships at a Russian yard for a Russian shipping company to work for a Russian oil and gas project as a good example of innovative initiatives implementation.

Kirill Yuryevich Lavrov (1925-2007) – the actor of the Leningrad Bolshoy Drammatichesky Theatre (BDT). Starting from 1989 he was the artistic director of the BDT, the USSR People’s Actor, the Hero of Socialist Labour, the laureate of Lenin and State Prizes, the President of the International Confederation of Theatres Unions, the Honorary Citizen of St. Petersburg.
Kirill Lavrov’s way to the stage went through the Technical Aviation College and the amateur theatre in the Army. Kirill Lavrov demonstrated brilliant multifaceted talent and depth of emotions. He was an outstanding personality of fascinating charisma. He can be really named a great actor, who created a social portrait of a contemporary, and a hero of our time.

Admiralty Shipyards is the oldest shipyard in Russia, established by Peter the Great on 5 November 1704. It is the part of OAO United Shipbuilding Corporation. Today the yards are engaged in the design, construction and in modernisation of merchant marine vessels, as well as in construction and rebuilding of ships for the Navy. Over three centuries, more than 2,600 navy and merchant ships have been built by the Admiralty Shipyards.
SCF (Sovcomflot) Group is Russia’s largest shipping company. One hundred per cent of its shares are owned by the State. The SCF Group’s fleet is amongst the five leading tanker companies in the world and operates 147 vessels with a total deadweight (dwt) of more than 10 million tonnes. The average age of vessels in the tanker fleet is about six years (the world average age is 12 years).
• The company owns the largest ice-class fleet, being No.1 in the segment of the Arctic shuttle tankers and ice-classed LNG tankers;
• SCF Group is a world leader in the product carrier segment; it is the second largest in the Aframax tanker segment and the fourth largest in the Suezmax tanker sector;
• The Group’s services include not only transporting hydrocarbons for its customers, but also trans-shipping crude oil via FSO facilities, terminal management and developing effective logistics for transporting energy, and providing supply vessels services to drilling rigs and offshore platforms;
• SCF Group participates in the development of projects for the complex servicing offshore oil and gas fields, including the construction and the operation of the offshore drilling equipment;
• By today SCF Group remains a major customer in Russia’s merchant shipbuilding. The line of vessels ordered by Sovcomflot from Russia’s yards includes product carriers of MR class, unique shuttle tankers of enhanced ice class for servicing oil and gas offshore fields in the Arctic region, port tugs. Sovcomflot develops cooperation both with the enterprises being part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation (the Admiralty Shipyards), and private yards (Pella Shipbuilding Yard);
• Arctic shuttle tankers similar to Kirill Lavrov, owned by SCF Group, have already been working for another Russian project of seaborne transportation of oil from the Varandey field (the project is operated by Naryanmarneftegaz, a joint venture of Lukoil and ConocoPhillips).