Marine Log - September 2007 - (Page 48)

ICE CLASS TANKERS AZIPODS: JUST ADD ICE his past June, something unique began taking shape in St. Petersburg, Russia. That’s when the keel was laid for the M/V Mikhail Ulyanov, the first of two 70,000 dwt Double Acting (DA) design Arctic shuttle tankers being built by Admiralty Shipyards in St. Petersburg for Sovcomflot, Russia’s largest shipping company. While the Mikhail Ulyanov, and its sister vessel, M/V Kirill Lavrov, will be the largest ships ever built by the 300-yearold shipyard, that is just part of their novelty. The two shuttle tankers have been designed by Finland’s Aker Arctic Technology Inc. for operating in the extremely harsh ice and navigational conditions of the Barents Sea, where temperatures can dip to –50 C and the sea is covered by ice two-thirds of the year. The tankers will operate from a platform at Prirazlomnoye, an Arctic oilfield located 60 kilometers offshore, to T Belokamenka, a cargo transfer terminal in Murmansk. The oil will then be taken by supertanker to refineries in Europe. Prirazlomnoye is being operated by Sevmorneftegaz, a subsidiary of Russian state-controlled gas company OAO Gazprom. Thus far, oil reserves of 610 million bbl have been identified. The infrastructure for Prirazlomnoye’s development is pivotal for Gazprom because it will serve as the basis for future exploitation of hydrocarbon resources in other Arctic fields in the Barents and Kara Seas. With the help of icebreakers, the shuttle tankers will have to sail through more than 1,000 kilometers of ice to reach Belokamenka. That’s where the tankers’ Double-Acting design comes into play. The DA concept has emerged as a The 240 ft USCG Mackinaw (WLBB-30), which joined the U.S. Coast Guard fleet in 2005 to upgrade the service’s Great Lakes icebreaking capability, is fitted with two 3.35 MW Azipods (see photo inset) leading standard for designing and operating ships in Arctic, ice-infested waters. While operating in the most difficult ice conditions, the ship moves stern first, using azimuthing electric propulsion units. These units are Azipods supplied by Finland’s ABB Marine. They are compact, podded thrusters that rotate 360 degrees, eliminating the need for rudders. The pods contain an AC electrical drive motor coupled to a short drive shaft connected to a fixed-pitch propeller. This eliminates the need for any mechanical gearing. The tankers will be able to operate stern first through ice up to 1.2m thick at speeds of 3 knots using a pair of 8.5 MW Azipod thrusters, with power supplied by a diesel-electric power plant consisting of four main diesels producing a total of 25 MW. This allows the ship to use less power and its bow can be optimized for http://www.eagle.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Marine Log - September 2007

Marine Log - September 2007 Contents Update Inside Washington High Speed Design Heads into New Waters The National Maritime Salvage Conference & Expo Guide China Aims for the Top Azipods: Just Add Ice Rigdon Scores Newsmakers Tech News Contracts Events Website Directory InfoDirect Ml Marketplace Last Word

Marine Log - September 2007

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