Russia orders Azerbaijan construction of high speed crew boats
By Aynur Jafarova
Russia has ordered Azerbaijan construction of high speed crew boats.
Russian Maritime Register of Shipping signed a relevant contract with Baku Shipyard LLC for the construction of three 38М high speed crew boats (designer - SHIPTECH, Singapore) for Azerbaijan State Caspian Sea Shipping Company.
The construction process is set to begin in August 2014 and the boats should be delivered to Russia by May 2016.
The vessels are designed to transport personnel (up to 80 people) and various types of cargo to mobile offshore drilling units and other offshore oil and gas exploration and extraction facilities. According to their specifications, they can operate at up to 100 miles from the coast.
The overall length of each boat is 38.22 meters, breadth - 8.2 meters, depth - 4.3 meters, draught - 2.25 meters and crew - 8 people.
The order will help developing cooperation with the newly constructed shipyard in Baku. It will also be the first major project since Baku Shipyard reached full capacity in 2013.
It is planned that the new high speed vessels will operate at the Gunashli, Chirag, Azeri, Bulla, Pirallahi, West Absheron, as well as Chilov fields and areas of the Caspian Sea.
Baku Shipyard LLC is a joint venture of Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR, Azerbaijan Investment Company (AIC), and Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd. (Keppel O&M). It was inaugurated by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in September 2013.
Keppel O&M owns 10 percent of the project. The largest shareholder at 65 percent is SOCAR, followed by AIC which owns 25 percent equity in the company.
The plant is expected to construct a large spectrum of specialized and merchant ships, including multi-purpose vessels such as platform supply vessels, tankers, and cargo ships. The enterprise has also ship-repair capabilities.
The plant's production capacity is 25,000 tons of steel per year. The facility is designed to produce four tankers with the deadweight of 15,000 tons or two tankers with the deadweight of 70,000 tons per year.
At full capacity, the plant will be able to carry out up to 100 repair or rebuild works annually.