STX Norway Offshore has been contracted to construct three North Caspian capability icebreaker tugs for JSC Circle Marine Invest.
Caspian Offshore Construction Kazakhstan will operate the vessels in the Kashagan field currently being developed in ultra-shallow waters offshore Kazakhstan.
The vessels will be delivered in 2010 and 2011 and the total cost of the trio is expected to come in around $110million.
“With Caspian Offshore Construction being a new customer to STX Europe, these contracts are of strategic importance to us,” said Roy Reite, president for STX Europe’s business area offshore and specialised vessels.
“The Caspian Sea is of great interest to STX Europe, especially the northern part, where our icebreaking expertise is required.”
The vessels are designed by STX Europe subsidiary Aker Arctic and have a length of 65m and breadth of 16.4m. They will have the ice-class notification, 1A Super, based on Finnish-Swedish ice classification rules.
Further, the vessels will be equipped and designed for other operations such as firefighting, rescue operations and towing in shallow waters.
These new Caspian icebreaker tugs are based on the first Aker Arctic DAS icebreakers – Arcticaborg and Antarcticaborg – which have operated for more than 10 years in the Kashagan oil development, which is located in water depths of four to seven metres.
The supply base is at Bautino, some two days’ steam from the drilling site.
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