Keppel secures Lukoil contracts

Keppel Singmarine in Singapore has clinched contracts worth $164 million for two highly specialised vessels from Lukoil Kaliningradmorneft, a subsidiary of the Russian oil giant Lukoil Oil Company. These two new contracts, secured on the back of the AHTS, are turnkey projects and comprise the construction of an auxiliary icebreaking vessel and a multi-purpose icebreaking supply vessel.

They will be the first such vessels to be built by an Asian yard and are scheduled for delivery between end 2007 and mid 2008. To be deployed in the Barents Sea, these newbuildings are designed to the rules and standards of the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (RMRS).

The 10 metre long auxiliary icebreaker will have equipment and system capabilities to work in temperatures down to -40 degrees and navigate through 1.7 metres of level ice with 20cm snow cover. The 81 metre long multi-purpose supply vessel will be able to cut through landfast ice having an unbroken thickness of up to 1.5 metres with 20cm snow cover.