OREANDA-NEWS. August 31, 2011. JSC Murmansk Shipping Company (MSCO) has been awarded a contract from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), which supports the work of the U.S. Antarctic program. The operator won a tender held by NSF to provide icebreaking assistance to the US vessels in the Antarctic, the shipping company said.

In December 2011, the Murmansk Shipping’s icebreaker Vladimir Ignatyuk will start escorting the U.S. ships and maintaining clean water canal in the ice of McMurdo Bay to ensure smooth deliveries of fuel and other cargoes for two polar stations of the United States in the next several years.

The Vladimir Ignatyuk has been operating in Antarctica for several years, including under contracts with the Center of the Ocean and Antarctic Research of the Government of India at Maitri stations Larsemann Hills stations.

McMurdo Station is the largest modern research station, located on the Antarctic continent, which consists of the harbor, three airfields, a helipad and more than 100 buildings, including the Science and Technology Center.

JSC Murmansk Shipping Company (MSCO) is an integrated corporate structure, which comprises the fleet of 300 vessels of three Russian operators: JSC Murmansk Shipping Company, JSC Northern Shipping Company, JSC Northern River Shipping Company with a total deadweight of about 2 million tons. The main stockholders of MSCO are Arctic Technology LLC (62.7%) and the Russian Federation (25.5%).