The 70,000 ton ice-protected tanker “Mikhail Ulyanov” will be put on the water in Sankt Petersburg next week. The vessel is one of Russia’s new generation Arctic tankers.
The 260 meter long vessel has been built by the Admiralty Yard in Sankt Petersburg on an order from shipping major Sovkomflot. The ship is built for shipping of oil from the Prirazlomnoe field in the Pechora Sea to terminal facilities outside Murmansk, Murmanchanin.ru reports with reference to Portnews.ru. 
Production start-up at Prirazlomnoe has undergone several postponments. It is now expected that the Gazprom-operated project will be in production in the course of 2011. The field located in the ice-covered Pechora Sea will be Russia’s first offshore oil field in production in the High North.
The ship is capable of breaking through 1,2 meter thick ice with a three knot speed. The ship is designed by the Admiralty Yard together with Finnish partners.
A second tanker of the type is currently under construction in the yard.
Sovkomflot is Russia’s biggest shipping company with its 119 vessels and joint freight capacity of 9,16 million tons.