OREANDA-NEWS. November 10, 2011. Severodvinsk-based Zvezdochka Shipyard has completed the construction of the jack-up drilling rig "Arkticheskaya" for LLC Gazflot, the shipbuilding firm said.

Yesterday, Nov. 9th, during the visit of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Severodvinsk the contractor and the customer signed a certificate of acceptance for the drilling rig. The ceremony was also attended by First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Igor Sechin, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov, General Director of JSC United Shipbuilding Corporation Roman Trotsenko and General Director of LLC Gazflot Yuri Shamalov.

The Arkticheskaya rig is expected to be transported to the home port of Murmansk this November where the unit will be commissioned. Then the facility will be delivered to an offshore field by the customer.

Jack-up drilling rig 6500/100 "Arkticheskaya" of Project 15402M (designed by Sevastopol-based SCDB Coral) is intended for drilling exploratory oil / gas wells on the shelf of the Arctic and elsewhere. The Arkticheskaya was laid down in December 1995 with delivery scheduled for 1998. The drilling unit was being built at two Severodvinsk-based yards, "Zvezdochka" and "Sevmash". In 1999, the construction of jack-up rig was frozen due to lack of funding. In October 2003, the customer decided to order a technical project for the upgrade of the unit to be operable at depths ranging from 7 and 100 meters.

JSC Center for Ship Repair Zvezdochka (Arkhangelsk region, Severodvinsk) is a shipbuilding firm specializing in shipbuilding and ship repair, the construction of drilling platforms, the production of propellers for various purposes. The company is a subsidiary of United Shipbuilding Corporation.

LLC Gazflot is a 100% owned subsidiary of Russian gas monopoly Gazprom. The company was created to implement projects in the field of exploration and development of oil and gas deposits on the continental shelf of the Russian Federation.