LUKOIL’S ARCTIC FLEET WELCOMES ICE-BREAKER “VARANDEY”

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Today, the ceremony of consecration of the “Varandey” multi-purpose ice-breaker took place in Murmansk. The vessel was built by Keppel Singmarine (Singapore) under the contract with LUKOIL. The ship is to operate at the Varandey Oil Export Terminal in the Barents Sea.

The vessel is to be on continuous watch at the Stationary Ice-Resistant Sea Export Moor (SIRSEM), the Varandey Terminal, to ensure safe ice conditions during the loading of tankers.

The vessel is 100 meters long and about 22 meters wide. Its draught is 10.6 meters; the deadweight of the ship is 4,643 tons. The vessel speed is 15 knots. The ice-breaker can move as fast as 3 knots in level ice as thick as 1.7 meters. There are 22 members of the crew onboard.

The value of the ice-breaker building contract is USD 102 million.

The home port of the vessel is Kaliningrad.

Earlier on, the “Toboy” auxiliary ice-breaking tug, also built at Keppel Singmarine shipyards in Singapore under LUKOIL’s order, started to facilitate tanker loading at SIRSEM, the Varandey Terminal.

The vessel is 82 meters long and 18.5 meters wide. Its draught is 9.3 meters. The deadweight of the ship is 1,930 tons. Its speed is 15 knots. The tug, operated by 19 members of the crew, can negotiate 1.5-meter-thick ice with the speed of 2-3 knots. Kaliningrad is the home port of the vessel.

The value of the tug building contract is USD 72 million.

LUKOIL’s own fleet is intended to ensure continuous year-round export of oil produced by the Company in the North of Timano-Pechora Oil and Gas Province.