Design Challenges for Large Arctic Crude Oil Tanker

Abstract

The largest icebreaking tanker built so far, Vasily Dinkov was delivered by Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard to Russian ship-owner SOVCOMFLOT. The vessel was designed and built for the transport of crude oil from the Varandey offshore terminal in east-southern part of the Barents Sea to a transshipment location near Murmansk. The vessel is under long-term charter for NARYANMARNEFTEGAS (NMNG), a joint venture of LUKOIL and ConocoPhillips. The new ship was constructed strictly to the requirements, specification, and concept design provided by the charterer as a basis for final design, building contract, and time-charter agreement. That approach was driven by time constrain, challenges of the project, and uncertainty about experienced icebreaker builder shipyard availability. The ConocoPhillips-LUKOIL marine technical group led the efforts for the feasibility design study at the early vessel design stage and contributed arctic design expertise and oversight of the final design and construction.