First steel cut on two supply vessels for Russia's Lukoil has started at Keppel Nantong Shipyard Co.'s yard in Nantong on 18 June.
The two Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (RS) class vessels have been designed to supply resources to the Vladimir Filanovsky field development facilities in the northern part of the Caspian Sea and to ensure their safe operation. Completion of construction is scheduled for September 2015.
They are 80m-long, 16.5m-wide, with a 1000-tonne deadweight.
Ice model tests were successfully conducted on the hulls of this design in the ice model basin of Aker Arctic (Finland) in March 2014.
The presence of Arc4 ice strengthening allows them to work effectively during the winter. The project also envisages equipping the vessels with systems to extinguish fires on fixed offshore platforms and at the transshipment terminal, as well as equipment to deal with oil spills.
As part of the project to develop the Vladimir Filanovsky field, a rescue vessel is also being built at the Singapore shipyard Keppel Singmarine Pte Ltd.
Meanwhile, Rosneft and Lukoil have started appraisal well № 1 at the Ribachya structure at the North Caspian block, in the Russian sector of the Caspian Sea, using the Astra jackup drilling rig.
The project is operated by the Caspian Oil Company. The planned drilling depth is 1650m. In 2007, Rosneft bought a share in Caspian Oil Company, which holds exploration licenses in the Russian sector of the Caspian Sea. The project operator is Caspian Oil Company, established by Rosneft (49.892%), Lukoil (49.892%) and Gazprom (0.216 %).
More than 10 good structures were detected within the limits of the North Caspian block, says Rosneft. The prospective resources are estimated 260MM tons (1.9billion barrels) and 55Bcm of gas.