DUAL-FUEL BREAKER FOR ARCTIC SEAWAY

Mining and metallurgical company Norilsk Nickel (Nornickel) has signed a joint agreement with nuclear energy enterprise Rosatom and Far Eastern Shipbuilding & Ship Repair Center (FESRC) to design and construct an LNG-fuelled escort icebreaker.

The envisaged newbuild will assist vessels carrying Nornickel cargoes along the Northern Sea Route (NSR). The fleet deployed by Nornickel, the world’s largest producer of palladium and high-grade nickel, and a major supplier of platinum and copper, transported 1.5m tonnes on the Arctic seaway in 2020.

Renewal and development of icebreaker capacity constitutes a key element of the infrastructure modernisation strategy for the Norilsk Industrial District of northern central Siberia.

Nornickel is scaling up shipping volumes to enable strategic investment projects in the region to be delivered on schedule, and is also raising its game on the export market. Rosatom’s Kirill Komarov said “Building LNG icebreakers is a new stage in the development of the NSR. They will allow us to satisfy the requirements of investors in the western sector by replacing ageing nuclear icebreakers, as well as free-up more powerful vessels for operation in the east.”

A draft contract with the required technical specification for the newbuild is expected by mid 2022. The ship’s delivery will facilitate decommissioning, foreseen between 2027 and 2029, of the Taimyr-class icebreaker that currently serves the Nornickel trade through the western part of the NSR. The nuclear-powered Taimyr type, completed by the former Wartsila Marine at Helsinki in 1989/1990, is a 152m design of 35MW power, with the capability for continuous navigation through ice of 1.77m-thickness. Rosatom division Rosatomflot is the operator of Russia’s nuclear icebreaker fleet, including sisters Taimyr and Vaygach.

Earlier this year, Nornickel and Rosatom signed a deal to expand the period for the provision of icebreaker services. Currently, the Taimyr accompanies cargo ships trading January to May from the Taimyr Peninsula, in the western part of the NSR, including the Yenisey Gulf and Yenisey River. Under the revised agreement, the window for vessel escorting and support will be expanded to a November to May duration.

Besides the established services westbound to Murmansk and direct to foreign ports, Nornickel is looking to increase volumes of freight despatched eastbound along the NSR seaway to countries in the Asia-Pacific region. In the determination of key parameters for the new icebreaker, including width, power and volume, Nornickel is providing data on prospective freight tonnage, cargo vessel characteristics and number of voyages to and from the port of Dudinka, on the lower reaches of the Yenisey River.

A central theme of the project is the promotion of Russian self-reliance in the production and all related disciplines concerning vessels for the Arctic region. In the past, there was a heavy reliance, initially stemming from war reparation stipulations, on Finnish shipyards and designs for icebreakers and ice-going merchantmen. Nevertheless, even with the scope provided by a reinvigorated Russian shipbuilding industry, the decision to opt for dual-fuel power will necessitate a certain recourse to foreign know-how if well-proven systems are to be applied.

Revitalisation of the Russian nuclear icebreaker fleet under Rosatomflot control currently involves the Project 22220 Arktika-class series from Baltijsky Zavod in St Petersburg, and the Project 10510, Leader-class behemoth Russia laid down last year at the Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex, near Vladivostock.