Tankers on ice ? the flavour of the moment

The oil and gas resources of the Arctic and Far Eastern areas of Russia are the worlds biggest energy reserves outside the OPEC countries and, because of their geographical location, they are an important source in meeting the energy needs in Europe and North America. The transportation of crude oil can either be done by pipelines or by sea transport across the Baltic Sea or the Arctic Ocean and all these options must be further developed to increase security of supply and cost-efficiency.

Sakhalin project

To this end, Russian tanker operators are actively engaged in the development and building of new tanker designs offering a high degree of environmental protection. A current example is phase 1 of the Sakhalin-1 project on the Pacific coast of Russia which is being operated by Exxon Neftegas Ltd (ENL), a subsidiary of ExxonMobil. This project includes the Chayvo, Odoptu and Arkutun Dagi fields, located off the northeast coast of the Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East. Total recoverable reserves from the project are quoted as being 2.3 billion barrels of oil and 485 billion cubic metres of natural gas and the intention is to export these products to Korea and Japan.

Following a call for tenders from ENL in November 2002 for a series of five new building ice-class shuttle tankers, the company awarded long-term charter contracts for the transportation of Sakhalin-1 project oil to Primorsk Shipping Corporation of Nakhodka (Prisco) and Sovcomflot, the state-owned Russian shipping company. Prisco will provide three of the new 105,000DWT vessels with the other two coming from Sovcomflot. ENL is reportedly said to have received over 20 bids from leading shipping companies.

To assist Prisco in its tender submission, the company hired V.Ships Consulting to build these Aframax size vessels. This included development of the vessel specifications and assistance in reviewing the shipyard offers. V.Ships was also awarded a contract for the full technical management of the three Prisco ice-class tankers. Subsequently, V.Ships has been assisting both owners with negotiations at the preferred shipyard, Hyundai Heavy Industries in South Korea, and in monitoring the ice trials of a scale model of the tanker at a special facility in the Marine Institute of Hamburg.

All five vessels, which are based on an ice performance optimised 105,000DWT HHI “Aframax” design, incorporated a number of additional special features to meet ExxonMobil?s exacting requirements, especially the harsh climatic conditions of the region.

V.Ships Consulting will also be undertaking drawing approvals for the vessel design, and will have a team at the Ulsan facility of the Korean shipbuilder to undertake new building supervision alongside the owners? technical teams. When delivered, V.Ships Asia, based in Singapore, will provide technical management for the Prisco vessels.

The newbuildings will become the first large capacity tankers of 1 A ice class to comply with Swedish and Finnish requirements. The design takes into account all technical suggestions from both owners together with the requirements of ENL.

Since the tankers are planned to be used for all-year-round transportation of Sakhalin oil, they are required to meet higher safety standards because they will operate in difficult ice conditions. Double hull and additional equipment, such as a bow loading system and an impact monitoring system that will allow them to perform all-the-year-round navigation in the severe winter conditions of Sakhalin, will provide the necessary level of safe trading in accordance with the obligatory conditions of the charter-party.

Only three marine institutes, i.e. Hamburg, Helsinki and Saint Petersburg, possess facilities for model testing of new ships of super ice-class. The yard chose the German establishment where actual navigation conditions are replicated with ice 70 cm thick created in the model tank.

The model testing of the new design was successfully completed last year and HHI shipyard has started to work out the technical documentation prior to metal cutting and keel laying. Delivery of the first newbuilding is slated for end 2005 with the remainder being completed by mid 2006.

Baltic trade

Prisco recently signed a contract for the building of two Suezmax tankers with Hyundai Heavy Industries. These 166,000DWT vessels will have length 285 metres, breadth of 50 metres and a 15 metre draught. Delivery is planned for 2007 and they will be employed in the Baltic Sea. Built to ice-class, these newbuildings will incorporate a number of special features enabling them to navigate shallow channels in the Baltic Sea.

Both vessels will be built at HHI?s Ulsan yard and will be first of the Suezmax class in Prisco?s fleet. Prisco is also building two large-tonnage Aframax tankers of 108,000DWT at Brodosplit Shipyard, Croatia.