Bureau Veritas has been chosen to class two different series of ice-breaking tugs for service in the Caspian Sea. The first series is for three plus two 66-metre-long ice-breaking and ice management tugs. Each vessel has a 50-tonne bollard pull and Ice Class IA Super Special Service – North Caspian Sea Icebreaker with ice breaking capability up to 0.6-metre level ice thickness.
Designed by Aker Arctic, they will be built in the STX RO Offshore Braila yard in Romania for the Caspian Offshore Construction group project in the North Caspian Kashgan oil field.
"These vessels have been designed by Aker Arctic and will be classed by Bureau Veritas," said Gijsbert de Jong, manager, Bureau Veritas.
"The vessels have to be very tough to work in the Caspian and Russian waters. The design has been tailor made for optimum performance in the shallow waters of the North Caspian Sea, where the vessels will break level ice up to 60cm thick and can operate year round in ice conditions up to one-metre thick."
In addition to towage and pushing barges in open water and in ice conditions, the vessels will be capable of ice management operations in astern working mode, clearing ice rubble. The vessels will be equipped for undertaking firefighting, rescue and evacuation tasks and have deck cargo capability for supply functions.
The second series is currently out to tender and is for shallow draught ice-breaking AHTS vessels to be built for Silverburn Shipping. Designed by Netherlands-based Offshore Ship Designers, these vessels will be easy to maintain and repair and can work in 70cm of ice.
They have a significant load carrying capability on a shallow draught and provide a minimum 45-tonne bollard pull. Model tests at Aker Arctic showed the hull form can perform in ice to Finnish/Swedish Ice Class 1A Super standards.
These vessels measure 49.6 metres by 16.5 metres and have a seagoing draught of 3.5 metres and a shallow draught of 2.5 metres.
