60 new vessels for Gazprom
Gazprom will need more than 60 new specialized ships, 23 LNG tankers and more than ten drilling rigs by year 2020, the company’s deputy leader highlighted in a meeting with subsidiary companies yesterday. A number of contracts will be signed with Russian shipyards in the course of the year, the company confirms.
Meeting with leaders of a number of subsidiary companies yesterday, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom’s Management Committee Aleksandr Ananenkov said that the company will need more than 60 new specialized ships and vessels, 23 LNG tankers and more than ten drilling rigs by year 2020. Gazprom will do its utmost to place the construction orders in Russian shipyards, the company leader said.
The ambitious goal is in line with the Programme for development of the shelf by 2030, a document adopted in 2005, a company press release reads.
Mr. Ananenkov confirmed that contract negotiations between Gazprom subsidiaries and Russian shipyards are starting. That was confirmed also by company deputy Valery Golubyov in last week’s Peterburg Dialogue forum. A number of contracts, several of them with the Northern Shipyard in Sankt Petersburg, will be signed by the end of the year, Golubyov said, the United Industrial Corporation writes on its website.
The construction boom will help Russian shipyards modernize and reach “a new level”, Gazprom maintains. Currently, four Russian oil and gas platforms are under construction, the “Prirazlomnaya” in Sevmash (Severodvinsk), the “Arkticheskaya” in Zvezdochka (Severodvinsk) and the “Severnaya Siyanie” and Polyarnaya Zvezda” in Vyborg. In addition, plans for the construction of LNG carriers are underway in the Severnaya Verf in Sankt Petersburg.
The fulfillment of the huge orders will not come easy for the shipyards, many of which are in dire need of modernization. It might be foreign yards which after all end up with the lion’s share of the deals. As reported by BarentsObserver, it is South Korean yards which are building the topsides of the Shtokman platforms “Severnaya Siyanie” and Polyarnaya Zvezda”. It is likely that the same yards will get key roles in the construction of the LNG carriers.
