Ilya Klebanov News

OAO Sovcomflot opens its Saint-Petersburg captain & senior officer training & engineering centre (TEC) for Arctic offshore operations. The opening of the modern training centre in Russia’s maritime capital marks an important milestone in the implementation of the SCF development strategy which provides for an expansion of company participation in oil & gas projects in the Arctic and sub-Arctic. Sovcomflot vessels provide year-round support for large offshore energy projects, such as: Sakhalin-I, Sakhalin-II, Varandey, Tangguh, Escobar, and Peregrino.

A Russian minister said the recovery of the bodies of the 118 men who died on board the sunken Kursk nuclear submarine would begin next month. But he played down suggestions, backed on Tuesday by U.S. officials, that an exploding torpedo caused the disaster. Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov also said the lifting of the wreck of the submarine would begin in around one year and cost $100 million. "The operation (to recover the bodies) will begin at the end of September and will be carried out by Norwegian and Russian divers," Klebanov told a news conference in Russia's second city, home to the agency which designed the Kursk. He said a Norwegian team would come to St Petersburg on Thursday to discuss how the operation can be carried out.

Russia signed a deal with Dutch salvage and heavy transport firm Mammoet to raise the wrecked nuclear submarine Kursk, which plunged to the bottom of the Barents Sea last year killing all 118 sailors on board. Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov said the Russian navy, the St Petersburg-based Rubin bureau which designed the submarine and Mammoet had signed a contract to lift the Kursk this summer. He did not give the value of the deal, but has said that the salvage would cost about $70 million. "The preparatory work will begin today and the operation will be in two stages," Klebanov said. "The first will begin in mid-July and be completed about September 8-10.