Milestone for Sovcomflot Arctic Tankers
Sovcomflot’s three unique Arctic shuttle tankers, the Shturman Albanov series, have reached the milestone of having transported one million tons of crude oil produced at the Novy Port oil and gas condensate field, from the Gulf of Ob (Kara Sea) to the port of Murmansk.
The milestone cargo of oil was loaded on Shturman Albanov on January 29 at the Arctic Gate marine terminal located near Cape Kamenny in the Gulf of Ob.
In total, Sovcomflot tankers have completed 33 voyages with Novy Port grade oil since last autumn. The first large cargo of oil was loaded on the Shturman Albanov on September 12, 2016.
Sovcomflot’s three Arctic shuttle tankers, Shturman Albanov, Shturman Malygin and Shturman Ovtsyn, are specially designed to carry crude oil from the Yamal Peninsula to the port of Murmansk all year round. The vessels are registered under the Russian flag and have Saint Petersburg as their home port. Oil is shipped under a long-term contract with Gazprom Neft.
The design of the new vessel takes into account the specific features of the waters in the Gulf of Ob, where some areas are relatively shallow – about 10 meters deep – and which is covered with ice from October to July. Shturman Albanov is capable of operating in the Arctic all year-round at temperatures down to –45°?. Her propulsion system consists of two Azipod thrusters with a total capacity of 22 MW, which provides a high ice-breaking capability and good maneuverability in sailing through ice drifts and heavy ice fields.
The deadweight of each tanker is about 41,500 tons. All three vessels have a length of 249 meters and a breadth of 34 meters. The Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (RS) assigned the vessels an ice class Arc7.
Shturman Albanov joined the fleet in August 2016, with Shturman Malygin added in October 2016 and Shturman Ovtsyn put into service in December 2016.
Proceeding to her operation area, Shturman Ovtsyn took part in a unique transit voyage along the Northern Sea Route within a convoy of ships under the escort of Atomflot’s nuclear-powered icebreaker 50 Let Pobedy. For the first time in the history of Arctic navigation, the ships sailed westward along the Northern Sea Route in late December 2016 – early January 2017.