NEW LUKOIL’S ICE CLASS TANKER BUILT IN ST.-PETERSBURG

Saturday, December 22, 2001

The ceremony of descending to waters the newly built reinforced ice class tanker “Saratov” was held today at Saint Petersburg’ ship-building factory “The Admiralty Shipyards”. The final stage is running and mooring tests, that are to be carried out within five months.

“The Admiralty Shipyards” has a record of successful cooperation with LUKOIL: three tankers – “Astrakhan”, “Magas” and “Kaliningrad” – are already working on lines of Northern sea way. The total number of LUKOIL’s tankers built at the shipyards will amount to five.

Tankers are constructed to work under complex conditions of Arctic region. They can transport up to four types of various cargoes simultaneously, including crude oil and a gas condensate. They are equipped with the automated systems of navigation and other state of the art ship systems. The vessel’s double hull can overcome continuous ice thickness of 0.5 meters at a speed of 1.5–2 hitches. Tanker’s length is 155, width – 24, a draft – 9 meters. Speed – 15.4 hitches. Deadweight – 20 thousand tons, crew – 24 persons. Range of navigation – 8 thousand miles, area of navigation is not limited.

LUKOIL’s fleet consists of 5 more tankers built in Germany at MTW shipyard in Wiesmar.

The primary purpose of these vessels is transportation of refined oil products to the Far North regions and shipping of crude from Timan-Pechora province.