A LUKOIL-ordered tanker will be commissioned tomorrow, September 18, 1998 in Volgograd. It is the first of ten river-sea ships to be built in the city for the company over three years. Three tankers will be commissioned next summer.

The 6,200 tonne tanker named LUKOIL-1 is 139 meters long and 16.5 meters wide, has a draught of five meters, travels at a speed of 11.5 knots and is manned by a crew of 11. It will carry crude oil and any kind of petroleum products. Two kinds of cargo can be carried simultaneously. It can stay at sea for 15 days without replenishment of its support systems. The tanker's range is 4,000 miles. During the summer shipping season it will carry cargo from Volgograd and Perm and during the winter navigation, operate in the Black, Mediterranean and Baltic Seas. It will make a maiden voyage shortly to an Iranian port.

"The construction of LUKOIL tankers is highly important not for the company and the Volgograd Shipyard alone. This project will back up the industrial development of the region," LUKOIL President Vagit Alekperov has said.

LUKOIL's fleet now includes tankers Lukomorye, Langepas, Urai, Kogalym, and two 16,000 tonne Perm and Volgograd tankers designed for sailing in Arctic seas. Eight more tankers of the latter kind will be built in the MTW shipyard in Wismar, Germany, and in the Admiralty Shipyards, St. Petersburg, before 2001.

LUKOIL is building its tanker fleet in the framework of the state-run Restoration of Russia's Merchant Fleet program. When it has enough ships of its own, the company will not have to charter ships and so will cut transportation costs. At the moment its fleet has a tonnage of over 160,000 tonnes.

 

 

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