Russia's Admiralty Shipyard will move a new enhanced ice-class tanker, the Mikhail Ulyanov, from a dry dock to a wet dock on Friday for the final stages of construction work, its press service said on Tuesday.

The floating out ceremony is to be attended by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, Transport Minister Igor Levitin, Culture Minister Alexander Adveyev, St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko and other dignitaries.

The St. Petersburg-based shipyard, Russia's oldest, is building for Sovcomflot, Russia's largest shipping company, a series of two 70,000dwt enhanced ice-class tankers, designed to ship oil from Prirazlomnoye (an Arctic oil field operated by Sevmorneftegaz, a subsidiary of Gazprom).

Construction of the Mikhail Ulyanov started in 2007 and is to be completed in the summer of 2009. A second tanker, the Kirill Lavrov, is also due to be launched in 2009.

Sovcomflot took delivery of the country's first Arctic shuttle tanker, the Vasily Dinkov, from Samsung Heavy Industries last year.

The Vasily Dinkov, along with its sister tankers - the Shturman Albanov and the Kapitan Gotsky - have an ice-enhanced hull structure, designed in accordance with LU6 (1A Super) ice-class, under the classification of the Russian Register of Shipping.

They will be able to operate in temperatures of minus 46 C, breaking ice of up to 1.5mtr thick without an icebreaker escort.

The ships are also equipped with two Azipod propulsion units, with a total power output equivalent to 20mW. They all have a dynamic positioning system for use in ice and a helicopter pad.

News source: RIA Novosti
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