Equipment for "Vostok Oil" tankers will be supplied by Samsung
As it became known to Kommersant, the South Korean shipyard SHI concluded a contract for the supply of equipment and components for the construction of the Vostok Oil project at Zvezda, the first series of Arc7 ice-class shuttle tankers. Its cost may reach $1.7 billion. The Russian shipyard is expected to sign agreements in October for the construction of ten tankers of this class with deadweight of 120,000 tons. Analysts say that Vostok Oil will need more than 30 tankers to transport 100 million tons of Vostok Oil cargo by 2030.
Recently, in a number of Korean media, with reference to the reporting of the South Korean shipyard Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI), information appeared that the shipyard received a contract worth $ 1.7 billion for the design, supply of parts and partial construction of seven shuttle tankers for an unnamed company from Eurasia.
TradeWinds has suggested that the tankers are intended for Rosneft.
The Russian company, responding to a request from Kommersant, stressed that "the construction of Arc7 ice-class shuttle tankers intended for the transportation of oil will be performed at the Zvezda production site."
In 2019 the Zvezda shipbuilding complex (owned by a consortium of Rosneftegaz, Rosneft and Gazprombank) created a joint venture with SHI to manage projects for the construction of shuttle tankers with deadweight of 42,000 to 120,000 tons at Zvezda.
As noted in Rosneft, in addition to supplies of equipment and components for tankers, SHI will also “train Russian personnel at its shipyard and organize practical training on similar projects” as part of the joint venture.
The company recalled that the joint venture provides for the creation of conditions at Zvezda to “localize the full cycle of design and construction of ice-class tankers”.
The number of Arc7 tankers ordered in the first series is not disclosed in Rosneft. Earlier, the deputy general director of Zvezda, Konstantin Globenko, said that in October the shipyard expects to sign contracts for the construction of ten Arc7 Arctic shuttle tankers with deadweight of 120,000 tons for the Vostok Oil project.
Vostok Oil includes the Vankor field (Vankorskoye, Suzunskoye, Lodochnoye, Tagulskoye, Icheminskoye), the Payakhskoye field, the West Irkinsky area and the fields of the East Taimyr cluster. It is planned to annually ship 30 million tons of oil along the Northern Sea Route (NSR) from 2024, 50 million tons from 2027 and about 100 million tons from 2030. According to Korean media, SHI will supply tanker components by 2027, and according to TradeWinds it will occur between 2023 and 2027.
“To transport the 30 million tons of oil nominated for 2024 when it is delivered by shuttle, even to the port of Murmansk, ten tankers and two offshore transshipment complexes will be required,” says Mikhail Grigoriev, head of the Gekon consulting center.
According to him, given that the tankers will not be ready before 2027, it will not be possible to export the nominated volumes by their own vessels, but third-party vessels may be involved on a freight basis.
According to the analyst, in general, more than 30 tankers and six offshore transshipment complexes will be required to export products to Murmansk from Vostok Oil, the volume of which may reach 100 million tons per year by 2030. Mr. Grigoriev believes if the company starts exporting to the east, due to the twofold increase in the duration of circular flights, even if there is transshipment in Kamchatka, the fleet will need to be expanded.
Source: Kommersant