Keppel Secures Contracts for Icebreakers

An artist impression of the icebreaker and the ice breaking supply ship, which Keppel Singmarine is building for LUKOIL. The vessels are due for delivery between end 2007 & mid 2008.

Keppel Singmarine has clinched contracts worth a total of $164.3m for two vessels from LUKOIL – Kaliningradmorneft (LUKOIL), a subsidiary of Russian oil company, LUKOIL Oil Company. The parent company of Keppel Singmarine, Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd (Keppel O&M), has also signed an agreement with LUKOIL for further co-operation in potential newbuilding of offshore rigs, special purpose offshore facilities and vessels to service LUKOIL's offshore oil terminal vessels at Keppel O&M shipyards around the world.

The vessels will be delivered to their owner between end 2007 and mid 2008. To be deployed to the Barents and Arctic Seas, these vessels are designed and will be built to the rules and standards of the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (RMRS), and are customised in accordance with the owner’s stringent requirements and superior technical specifications. The 328-ft. auxiliary icebreaker vessel will have equipment and system capabilities to work in temperatures down to –40oC and to proceed through 1.7 metres of level ice with 20cm snow cover. The 81-metre long multi-purpose icebreaking supply vessel can proceed through landfast ice having an unbroken thickness of up to 1.5 metres with 20cm snow cover.