Russia’s first home-built Aframax tanker undergoes testing

Sea trials have commenced for the first Russia-built Aframax ice-class tanker, Vladimir Monomakh, from the Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex in the Far East region of Russia. This is the first of 12 similar tankers. The steel cutting of the fifth in the series commenced in February 2020. The series is due to be competed in 2024.

According to the shipyard, the main engine and auxiliary engines can operate on low sulphur fuel oil and LNG.

The Aframax tanker was built in the largest outfitting berth in Russia at Zvezda, equipped with three keel tracks with a unique self-moving system of ship carrying.

The slip is equipped with four portal jib cranes with a lifting capacity of 320 tonnes, four gantries with a lifting capacity of 100 tonnes, and a Goliath crane with a lifting capacity of 1,200 tonnes. The lifting capacity of cranes in other Russian shipyards, in contrast, is only 500 tonnes.

Vladimir Monomakh was launched with the Vympel floating transfer dock, delivered to the shipyard in July 2018. The dock is unsupported and allows the longitudinal launching of ships from three different shipyard slipway lines as well as the sideways launch of offshore facilities. The floating transfer dock is designed for heaving off large marine vessels (including drilling platforms) 300 m in length and over 50 m in width.

In August 2020, it was reported that the Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex had received an order for 14 large LNG carriers. It is understood that Samsung in South Korea is building the hull building blocks for assembly and completion by the Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex.

The shipyard has about 3,500 employees, 87% of whom live in the Far East. By 2024, when the construction of all facilities is to be finished, the number of employees will have surpassed 7,000.

The shipyard works intensively on staff recruitment and re-skilling, the social infrastructure development in Bolshoy Kamen and constructing apartment blocks for employees. Ten buildings are already finished and lived in, and there is an active real estate development in six subdistricts. By 2023, it plans to build about 5,000 flats and meet the employees’ housing demands completely.

The president of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin also attended the steel cutting ceremony at the Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex in September 2017. The steel cutting of the fifth tanker in the series commenced in February 2020.

Vladimir Monomakh specifications:

• Length: 250 m
• Beam: 44 m
• Draft: 15.0 m
• 114,000 dwt
• Speed: 14.6 knots
• Ice-class ICE-1A
• Main engine: WinGD 7X62DF 16,695 kW @ 103 RPM X-DF ECO dual fuel

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