Fincantieri has signed an agreement with a Russian research centre to define plans for a new drillship able to navigate in ice up to 1.5m thick.
The Italian ship building firm has also won a contract with Russia's RosRAO, to build a semisubmersible floating platform for the transportation of nuclear submarine reactor compartments.
For the drillship design, Fincantieri will work with the Krylov State Research Centre. The aim is for the vessel to be able to operate in down to -40°C ambient temperatures and have a four-month operational autonomy.
The move follows an agrement in July, in which Fincantieri and the Krylov Centre signed a framework agreement spanning several sectors, including offshore.
Fincantieri said the latest agreement was important because the steady retreat of artic sea ice is making it possible to gain access over the medium to long term to hydrocarbon reserves within arctic water.
The deal would also open the company to opportunities in Russia, it said, citing plans by Russia to build a dozen vessels, such as that covered by the agreement, and likely costing more than US$1billion each, by 2030.
Read more: At OTC this year, Fincantieri announced a new next generation drillship design, Overdrill, created with support from Norway’s Aker Solutions - http://www.oedigital.com/component/k2/item/3253-partners-unveil-drillship-design
The contract with RosRAO, the Federal State Unitary Enterprise for radioactive waste management, is to build a semi-submersible floating platform for the transportation of nuclear submarine reactor compartments.
The platform will be built in the group's Italian yards, for delivery by the end of 2015. At 82m-long and 27m-wide, it will have a 3000-ton displacement.
It will be used to transport special material between the storage area and White Sea shipyards facing the Kola Peninsula.
Fincantieri previously built a multipurpose vessel to transport nuclear fuel and radioactive waste from the decommissioning of Russian nuclear submarines. The vessel, named Rossita, was delivered at Fincantieri's Muggiano yard in summer 2011.