OREANDA-NEWS. May 28, 2010. In Lappeenranta (Finland), OAO Sovcomflot and FGUP Rosmorport signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Finnish enterprises which specialise in the design and construction of ice-breaking and salvage vessels. The official signing ceremony was held during the visit of Russia’s Prime Minister Putin to Finland.

On behalf of the Russian Federation, the Memorandum was signed by the heads of Sovcomflot and Rosmorport, meanwhile the Finnish side was represented by the senior managers of STX Finland, Aker Arctic Technology Inc. and Southeast Trading Oy.

The signed memorandum covers cooperation between the Russian and Finnish signatories with the implementation of the pilot project to design and construct an innovative oil spill combat and salvage icebreaker. This will enable any accidental oil spills in the Gulf of Finland area to be tackled, including during ice conditions. The intention is also to use such ships for other tasks, such as the rescue of human lives, tug boat operations, escorting transport vessels and specialised floating facilities as well as ice escort services, etc.

Speaking about this news, Russia’s Deputy Minister of Transport Victor Olersky noted that the operation of such a vessel, within Russia’s support fleet in the Gulf of Finland, will contribute to measures for the protection of the marine environment in the Baltic Sea region already in progress between the maritime administrations of Russia and Finland. It will help solve a systematic problem of arranging effective monitoring, risk minimisation and on-the-spot response to emergency situations.

Sovcomflot’s President and CEO Sergey Frank said, “We view the implementation of this project on the basis of it being a public-private partnership with commercial principles. Adhering to the motto “Safety Comes First”, Sovcomflot is ready to act as a catalyst for Russia’s maritime authorities in expanding the potential of the Russian Federation's support fleet, to provide effective protection of the marine environment. When agreed with FGUP Rosmorport, Sovcomflot will be ready to accept responsibility for providing technical management of the project, its financing, supervising the construction of the vessel, further operation and technical management of the ship. Taking into account the outlook for the development of Russia’s energy projects in the offshore fields of the Arctic and the Far Eastern seas, as well as the emphasis put today on the issues of safety of navigation and the protection of marine environment, we think that the vessels of this type will be required as one element of an integrated safe navigation system not only in the Baltic sea region, but equally in the Barents sea and the Okhotsk areas.”

The General Director of FGUP Rosmorport Igor Rusu stated that “The close cooperation of the Russian and the Finnish companies and enterprises, which have gained substantive experience in the field, will provide for the arrangement of the design and construction of such a sophisticated vessel, in a short space of time, using the shipbuilding capacities of the two countries. The choice of the ship yard will be made on the basis of the tender procedures, as agreed by the project’s partners.”

Sovcomflot’s Senior Executive Vice-President Evgeny Ambrosov underlined that “The shipping and shipbuilding companies of the Russian Federation and Finland have obtained many years of experience in mutually beneficial cooperation, implementing joint innovative projects in shipbuilding which have allowed the construction of a great number of multi-purpose high-tech vessels, first and foremost for operating in the harsh conditions of Russia’s Arctic seas.

“While implementing the project, Sovcomflot intends to use its accumulated experience in the construction and operation of ships in complicated ice conditions of the Baltic, the Far Eastern and the Arctic seas. As preliminarily discussed, the parties to the Agreement consider it expedient to use as a project basis the vessel specifications of the Aker Arctic and STX Finland innovation project. This option envisages the construction of an oblique icebreaker, equipped with three rudder propeller units of an aggregate propulsion power of 7.5 MW. The ship is approximately 1,450 tonnes dwt, and its construction will enable the necessary technological equipment to be comfortably accomodated. The vessel’s ice performance parameter – the ability to break up to 1.2 metres of level ice in the ridge fields of the Gulf of Finland, was confirmed by the results of the ice model trials performed by Aker Arctic Technology Inc. jointly with the working group of Russia’s Ministry of Transport.”