Russias offshore developments create shipbuilding bonanza

Vice President of the United Shipbuilding Corporation in Russia, Sergey Forafonov, said that Gazprom?s plans for offshore developments would require over 300 vessels to be built.

This would bring plenty of opportunity for Russia’s shipyards which are expected to receive huge government investments for new facilities. This will include a new $1bn shipyard near St Petersburg which should get the go-ahead by the end of this year.

Excluding orders from the defence department, Russian shipyards have already realised a 20% year-on-year increase in the number of newbuild contracts in 2009.

Meanwhile, the General Director of the Shipbuilding and Shiprepair Technology Centre, Vladimir Gorbach, said that Moscow was anticipating the construction of 400 vessels including ice-strengthened tankers, LNG carriers and other specialist vessels.