A double acting ship is a type of icebreaking

ship A ship is a large watercraft that travels the world's oceans and other sufficiently deep waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research, and fishing. Ships are generally distinguished ...

designed to run ahead in open water and thin ice, but turn around and proceed astern (backwards) in heavy ice conditions. In this way, the ship can operate independently in severe ice conditions without icebreaker assistance but retain better open water performance than traditional icebreaking vessels.Juurmaa, K et al.: The development of the new double acting ships for ice operation. Kvaerner Masa-Yards Arctic Technology
2001
an
2002
. Double acting ships carrying liquid cargo are generally referred as double acting

tankers Tanker may refer to: Transportation * Tanker, a tank crewman (US) * Tanker (ship), a ship designed to carry bulk liquids ** Chemical tanker, a type of tanker designed to transport chemicals in bulk ** Oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tank ...

. In the early 1990s Kværner Masa-Yards Arctic Technology Centre (MARC) developed the concept for oil transportation between the Russian Arctic and Europe and the first double acting tanker,

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

crude oil tanker An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined cru ...

''Tempera'', was delivered in 2002.Mastera/Tempera
, Neste Oil.

History

In the early 1990s, studies conducted by Kvaerner Masa-Yards showed that the ship's open water efficiency is as important factor as its ability to operate in difficult ice conditions in oil transportation from the Russian

Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenland), Finland, Iceland, N ...

to Europe. This was due to the fact that on a direct route 90% of the time would be spent in open water. Direct independent transportation with a vessel capable of navigating in both ice and open water was also found out to be a more economical alternative in comparison with

transshipment Transshipment, trans-shipment or transhipment is the shipment of goods or containers to an intermediate destination, then to another destination. One possible reason for transshipment is to change the means of transport during the journey (e.g ...

, i.e. the use of different vessels for different parts of the journey, or normal ships relying on icebreaker assistance. Although icebreaking cargo ships had been built in the past, their hull forms were always compromises between open water performance and icebreaking capability. A good icebreaking bow, designed to break the ice by bending it under the ship's weight, has very poor open water characteristics and is subjected to slamming in heavy weather. However, a hydrodynamically efficient bulbous bow greatly increases the ice resistance, making it unsuitable for icebreakers.Juurmaa, K et al.
New ice breaking tanker concept for the arctic (DAT)
. Kvaerner Masa-Yards Arctic Technology, 1995.Kujala, P and Riska, K: Talvimerenkulku (TKK-AM-13). Department of Applied Mechanics, Helsinki University of Technology, 2010. As a result, the total efficiency of icebreaking ships is 20–40% less than that of good open water vessels of similar size mainly due to the bow form. In the late 1800s, captains operating ships in icebound waters discovered that sometimes it was easier to break through ice by running their vessels astern. Although not known at the time, this was because the forward-facing propellers generated a lubricating water flow that lowered the ice resistance by reducing friction between the ship's hull and ice.Aker Arctic Technology Inc.
Icebreaking Supply Vessels Arcticaborg and Antarcticaborg
. However, as the steering ability of a ship is greatly reduced when running astern, it could not be considered a main operating mode. These findings resulted in the adoption of bow propellers in older icebreakers operating in the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lak ...

and the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and ...

, but in the more severe Arctic ice conditions they could not be used because the risk of the bow propellers being damaged by multi-year ice floes was too great. Furthermore, forward-facing propellers have a very low propulsion efficiency and they considerably increase the ship's open water resistance, making them unsuitable for merchant ships.

Development

Because of the limitations of traditional propulsion systems, the double acting ship concept wasn't seriously considered until the development of electric podded propulsion units which combine the advantages of the diesel-electric powertrain, already widely used in icebreakers, with the excellent manoeuvrability of

azimuth thruster An azimuth thruster is a configuration of marine propellers placed in pods that can be rotated to any horizontal angle (azimuth), making a rudder unnecessary. These give ships better maneuverability than a fixed propeller and rudder system. Ty ...

s. Initially developed as a co-operation between the multinational electrical equipment corporation

ABB Group ABB Ltd. is a Swedish- Swiss multinational corporation headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland. The company was formed in 1988 when Sweden's Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget (ASEA) and Switzerland's Brown, Boveri & Cie merged to crea ...

and the Finnish shipbuilder Masa-Yards in the late 1980s, the new propulsion unit became known as

Azipod Azipod is a trademark azimuth thruster pod design, a marine propulsion unit consisting of a fixed pitch propeller mounted on a steerable gondola ("pod") containing the electric motor driving the propeller, allowing ships to be more maneuverabl ...

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words The superiority of electric podded propulsion in icebreaking ships, especially when running astern, was proved when the first propulsion pod was installed on fairway maintenance vessel ''Seili'', owned by the Finnish Maritime Administration, in 1990. Before the conversion the ship could not break ice astern at all, but after the propeller and rudder were replaced with a 1.5 MW Azipod unit she could run astern in level ice as thick as . The vessel could also easily be steered when running astern in ice. When product tankers ''Uikku'' and ''Lunni'' were converted to Azipod propulsion in 1993 and 1994, respectively, the result was similar increase in manoeuvrability and icebreaking capability. Even though the ships were originally designed with icebreaking capability in mind, after the conversion ice resistance in level ice when running astern was 40% of that when breaking ice ahead despite the ships being equipped with an icebreaking bow and not designed to break ice astern. Model tests conducted by MARC in 1994 showed that a double acting ship equipped with an

propulsion unit could break through

ice ridge An ice dune, also called an ice ridge or an ice foot, is a formation of ice that accumulates on the shores of many arctic beaches and is also common along the shores of the Great Lakes during the winter.French 2007, p. 273. Ice dunes are not to b ...

s in continuous motion instead of ramming like conventional icebreakers. It also required less power for running in level ice than traditional designs, resulting in 40–50% reduction in ice resistance due to lubricating effect of propeller-induced water flow, more open stern design and the propellers being allowed to mill (crush) the ice. The icebreaking capability of an Azipod-equipped icebreaker operating astern in level ice was also found out to be superior to traditional icebreakers regardless of propulsion arrangement.

Double acting ships

Icebreakers and other special vessels

The first double acting icebreaking vessel, Azipod-equipped river icebreaker ''Röthelstein'', was delivered in 1995. The vessel was designed to break apart ice ridges deeper than the vessel's

draft Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a vesse ...

when moving astern. It was followed by icebreaking

platform supply vessel A platform supply vessel (PSV) is a ship specially designed to supply offshore oil and gas platforms. These ships range from in length and accomplish a variety of tasks. The primary function for most of these vessels is logistic support and tr ...

s ''

Arcticaborg ''Arcticaborg'' (''Арктикаборг'') is an icebreaking platform supply vessel. She was previously operated by Wagenborg Kazakhstan in the Caspian Sea but was transferred to Canada in 2017 and acquired by Fathom Offshore in 2018. In 20 ...

'' and ''

Antarcticaborg ''Georgiy Sedov'' (russian: Георгий Седов) is an icebreaking platform supply vessel operated by Rosmorport in the Sea of Azov. She was built by Kværner Masa-Yards in Helsinki, Finland, in 1998 as ''Antarcticaborg'' ( kk, Ант� ...

'', delivered in 1998, that were the first vessels to fully utilize the double acting ship concept by having the bow designed for operation in open water and light ice conditions. The vessels were designed to be capable of breaking level ice up to one meter in thickness when running astern and, with the help of two Azipod units, penetrate ice ridges that in the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad steppe of Central Asia ...

sometimes reach to the

seabed The seabed (also known as the seafloor, sea floor, ocean floor, and ocean bottom) is the bottom of the ocean. All floors of the ocean are known as 'seabeds'. The structure of the seabed of the global ocean is governed by plate tectonics. Most of ...

. The

Norwegian Coast Guard The Norwegian Coast Guard ( no, Kystvakten) is a maritime military force which is part of the Royal Norwegian Navy. The coast guard's responsibility are for fisheries inspection, customs enforcement, border control, law enforcement, shipping ...

operates a double acting offshore patrol vessel KV ''Svalbard'', built in 2002 and equipped with two 5 MW Azipod propulsion units. On 9 July 2007, the

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...

reported that

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Stephen Harper had announced that Canada would be building six to eight patrol vessels based on ''Svalbard''. However, since the announcement, the design has progressed from an Azipod-equipped double acting ship to a more traditional shaft-driven version. Icebreaking supply and standby vessel '' SCF Sakhalin'', delivered in 2005 as ''FESCO Sakhalin'', was the first large-scale double acting icebreaker. The vessel, propelled by two 6.5MW Azipod propulsion units, is designed to break level ice up to thick and ice ridges with a consolidated layer.FESCO Sakhalin - Icebreaking supply and standby vessel
. Aker Finnyards. She has since been followed by six vessels based on the same hull form and built at the same shipyard for the offshore operations in the Sea of Okhotsk: platform supply vessels ''Vitus Bering'' in 2012, ''Aleksey Chirikov'' in 2013 and ''Gennadiy Nevelskoy'' in 2017, and standby vessels ''Stepan Makarov'', ''Fedor Ushakov'', and ''Mikhail Lazarev'' in 2017. The owner of these vessels,

Sovcomflot Sovcomflot (russian: ПАО «Совкомфлот», ПАО «Современный коммерческий флот», , Modern Commercial Fleet). Sovcomflot is Russia's largest shipping company, and one of the global leaders in the maritime ...

, also operates three icebreaking platform supply vessels of slightly different design that are capable of breaking ice in astern direction. The 2006-built ships, '' SCF Endeavour'', '' SCF Enterprise'' and '' SCF Endurance'', are propelled by two 7MW

Z-drive A Z-drive is a type of marine propulsion unit. Specifically, it is an azimuth thruster. The pod can rotate 360 degrees allowing for rapid changes in thrust direction and thus vessel direction. This eliminates the need for a conventional rudder. ...

thrusters and capable of breaking first year ice up to thick as well as multi-year ridges with a thickness of .E-Class Ice Breaking Supply Vessels (IBSVs)
Swire Group. The 3,500-ton

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mu ...

multipurpose icebreaker and

buoy tender A buoy tender is a type of vessel used to maintain and replace navigational buoys. This term can also apply to an actual person who does this work. The United States Coast Guard uses buoy tenders to accomplish one of its primary missions of main ...

USCGC ''Mackinaw'', delivered in 2005, also incorporates some of the features typical for double acting icebreakers, such as podded propulsion and astern icebreaking capability.Wilkman, G
New Ship Designs Under Development at Aker Yards
Powerpoint presentation. Aker Arctic, 2006. Slide 26. The 25MW diesel-electric line icebreaker ordered by Rosmorport from

Baltic Shipyard The OJSC Baltic Shipyard (''Baltiysky Zavod'', formerly Shipyard 189 named after Grigoriy Ordzhonikidze) (russian: Балтийский завод имени С. Орджоникидзе) is one of the oldest shipyards in Russia and is part o ...

under the project name LK-25, ''Viktor Chernomyrdin'', will be capable of proceeding continuously both ahead and astern in compact ice field up to thick with a snow cover at . The hybrid propulsion system of the new icebreaker is a further development of the traditional double acting concept and will consist of two 7.5MW ABB Azipod units and a fixed 10MW centerline shaft. The construction of the new polar icebreaker began in 2013 and it is expected to enter service in the Northern Sea Route in 2018.

Gazprom Neft Gazprom Neft (russian: Газпром Нефть; formerly Sibneft, russian: Сибнефть, link=no), is the third largest oil producer in Russia and ranked third according to refining throughput. It is a subsidiary of Gazprom, which owns about ...

has ordered two 22MW icebreakers, ''Aleksandr Sannikov'' and ''Andrey Vilkitskiy'', from

Vyborg Shipyard Vyborg Shipyard PJSC (russian: ПАО «Выборгский судостроительный завод») is a shipbuilding company located in Vyborg, Russia. The company has a focus on icebreakers and other icegoing vessels for arctic conditions ...

. The vessels, currently under construction and scheduled to be delivered in 2017, represent a further development of the Finnish icebreaker ''Polaris'' with capability of breaking ice in both ahead and astern directions. The new Chinese polar

research vessel A research vessel (RV or R/V) is a ship or boat designed, modified, or equipped to carry out research at sea. Research vessels carry out a number of roles. Some of these roles can be combined into a single vessel but others require a dedicated ...

, currently under construction, will utilize the double acting concept. The Polar Class 3 vessel, fitted with two azimuth thrusters, will be able to break level ice with a thickness of and a snow cover of .

Cargo ships

Tankers

In 2001

Fortum Fortum Oyj is a Finnish state-owned energy company located in Espoo, Finland. In addition to Finland, it focuses on Germany and other countries in Central Europe, Great Britain, Russia and the Nordic region. Fortum operates power plants, inc ...

ordered two double acting

Aframax An Aframax vessel is an oil tanker with a deadweight between 80,000 and 120,000 metric tonnes. The term is based on the Average Freight Rate Assessment (AFRA), a tanker rate system created in 1954 by Shell Oil to standardize shipping contract t ...

tankers from Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ltd., Japan, to replace the company's older tankers that, because of their lower

ice class Ice class refers to a notation assigned by a classification society or a national authority to denote the additional level of strengthening as well as other arrangements that enable a ship to navigate through sea ice. Some ice classes also have ...

, had traffic restrictions during the worst part of the winter and could not deliver their cargo all the way to the refineries in

Porvoo Porvoo (; sv, Borgå ; la, Borgoa) is a city and a municipality in the Uusimaa region of Finland, situated on the southern coast about east of the city border of Helsinki and about from the city centre. Porvoo was one of the six medieval to ...

and

Naantali Naantali (; sv, Nådendal) is a town in southwestern Finland, and, as a resort town during the summer, an important tourist centre of the country. The municipality has a population of (), and is located in the region of Southwest Finland, west ...

because they were not given icebreaker assistance. When this happened, the oil had to be transported to smaller ships of higher ice class at the edge of the ice — a practice that was both uneconomical and hazardous. The new ships are equipped with one pulling-type 16 MW Azipod unit and have the highest Finnish-Swedish ice class, 1A Super. They are designed to be capable of independent navigation and icebreaking in Baltic ice conditions with a possibility to operate also in the

Pechora Sea Pechora Sea (russian: link=no, Печо́рское мо́ре, or Pechorskoye More), is a sea at the northwest of Russia, the southeastern part of the Barents Sea. The western border of the sea is off Kolguyev Island, while the eastern border i ...

. The ships follow the double acting principle with a bulbous bow for open water performance and stern designed with icebreaking performance in mind. The first double acting tanker, ''Tempera'', was delivered in 2002 and its sister ship, ''Mastera'', in 2003. The icebreaking capability of the vessels proved to be superior to other ships — in shuttle service between Primorsk,

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

, and the Finnish refineries the tankers required no icebreaker assistance and even acted as icebreakers for other merchant ships.Anatoly Gorshkovskij & Göran Wilkman
"Norilskiy Nickel" a Breakthrough in Cost Efficient Arctic Transports
. Aker Arctic Technology Inc, 2007. The ships can break level ice up to thick at when operating astern.Fortum ́s Double Acting Tankers
ABB. The

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

shipping company Donsötank operates four small product tankers that the company refers to as double acting ships. ''Prospero'' and ''Bro Sincero'' are product tankers built in 2000 and 2002, respectively, and equipped with one Siemens Schottel azimuth thruster each. ''Evinco'' and ''Excello'' are slightly larger at . ''Evinco'', built in 2005, is equipped with one Schottel unit and the 2008-built ''Excello'' with two smaller Azipod units.Fleet
. Rederi AB Donsötank. Timofey Guzhenko oil tanker (2230006)

In 2007, the Russian state-owned shipping company

ordered three double acting arctic shuttle tankers from

Samsung Heavy Industries Samsung Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (Korean: 삼성중공업) is one of the largest shipbuilders in the world and one of the "Big Three" shipbuilders of South Korea (including Hyundai and Daewoo). Geoje (in Gyeongsangnam-do) is one of the largest ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

, to transport oil from the Varandey oil terminal and two similarly-sized ships of slightly different design from

Admiralty Shipyard The JSC Admiralty Shipyards (russian: link=no, Адмиралтейские верфи) (''formerly Soviet Shipyard No. 194'') is one of the oldest and largest shipyards in Russia, located in Saint Petersburg. The shipyard's building ways can ac ...

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, Russia, for the

Prirazlomnoye field Prirazlomnoye field is an Arctic offshore oilfield located in the Pechora Sea, south of Novaya Zemlya, Russia, the first commercial offshore oil development in the Russian Arctic sector. The field development is based on the single stationary ...

. The first ship, '' Vasily Dinkov'', was delivered in 2007 and its two sister ships, '' Kapitan Gotsky'' and '' Timofey Guzhenko'' in 2008 and 2009, respectively.Setcorp.ru
Russia's first Arctic Shuttle Tanker named "Vasily Dinkov"
2007-12-19. ''

Kirill Lavrov Kirill Yuryevich Lavrov (russian: link=no, Кирилл Юрьевич Лавров; 15 September 1925 – 27 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian film and theater actor and director. Biography Childhood Kirill Yuryevich Lavrov was born on 15 ...

'', the first double acting tanker built in a Russian shipyard, was delivered in 2009 and the last of the series, ''

Mikhail Ulyanov Mikhail Ulyanov may refer to: * Mikhail Alexandrovich Ulyanov, actor * Mikhail Ivanovich Ulyanov, diplomat {{disambig ...

'', in 2010.Setcorp.ru
Kirill Lavrov — a new Arctic shuttle tanker — launched in St. Petersburg
2009-12-27. Mikhail Ulyanov
, Sovcomflot fleet. The tankers, equipped with two Azipod units, are capable of bow loading and independent operation in level ice up to 1.2 meters in thickness. In March 2010

Norilsk Nickel Norilsk Nickel (russian: ГМК «Норильский никель»), or Nornickel, is a Russian nickel and palladium mining and smelting company. Its largest operations are located in the Norilsk–Talnakh area near the Yenisei River in the no ...

placed an order for an Arc7 ice class oil tanker derivate of its double acting arctic cargo ships at Nordic Yards in

Wismar Wismar (; Low German: ''Wismer''), officially the Hanseatic City of Wismar (''Hansestadt Wismar'') is, with around 43,000 inhabitants, the sixth-largest city of the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and the fourth-largest city ...

. The vessel, referred to as the "Nordic AT 19" design, has similar main dimensions, characteristics and capabilities as the company's five icebreaking container vessels. The tanker, named ''Enisey'', was delivered in the end of September 2011.Trading Places
The Naval Architect, January 2011. Tanker Nordic AT 19 leaves Wismar for test voyage
. Nordic Yards. The double acting ship concept has been selected as the main transportation concept for the

Yamal LNG Yamal LNG (russian: ОАО "Ямал СПГ") is a joint venture based around a liquefied natural gas plant located in Sabetta at the north-east of the Yamal Peninsula, northwest Siberia, Russia. In addition to the LNG plant, the project includes p ...

project. In July 2013,

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., Ltd ( ko, 대우조선해양; abbreviated DSME) is one of the "Big Three" shipbuilders of South Korea, along with Hyundai and Samsung. History On 21 February 2011, the A. P. Moller-Maersk Group (M ...

(DSME) won the tender for the construction of sixteen Arc7 ice class

LNG carrier An LNG carrier is a tank ship designed for transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG). History The first LNG carrier '' Methane Pioneer'' () carrying , classed by Bureau Veritas, left the Calcasieu River on the Louisiana Gulf coast on 25 January ...

s and the contract for the first vessel, worth 339.3 billion won ($316.4 million), was signed in March 2014. The Arctic LNG carriers, fitted with three 15MW ABB Azipod propulsion units, are the largest icebreaking vessels in the world with an independent ice-going capability in level ice up to in thickness. The first vessel, '' Christophe de Margerie'', was launched in January 2016. In July 2014, Samsung Heavy Industries received a $440 million order for three ice class Arc7 shuttle tankers for the Russian shipping company Sovcomflot. A follow-up order for the construction of three more tankers of similar design to an unnamed European shipping company at the same price was announced in October 2014. The 42,000 DWT tankers, capable of breaking ice with a thickness of at , will be used to transport crude oil from the Novy Port oil fields in the

Gulf of Ob The Gulf of Ob ( (russian: Обская губа, Obskaya guba; also known as ''Bay of Ob'', russian: Обский залив, Obsky zaliv, link=no) is a bay of the Arctic Ocean, located in Northern Russia at the mouth of the Ob River.

to the ice-free port of Murmansk. The first vessel of the series, ''Shturman Albanov'', was launched in early 2016.Первый танкер класса Arc7 для круглогодичного вывоза нефти с Нового порта спущен на воду (фото)
PortNews, 4 March 2016.

Freighters

Double action special Arctic Sea ship Norilskiy nickel rear view with bridge and view to the rear

The next generation of double acting ships emerged when the Russian mining company

ordered a prototype of a series of arctic general cargo/container ships intended to replace its ageing fleet of SA-15 type arctic cargo ships that were built in Finland in the 1980s. Unlike the tankers, the Arc7 ice class ship was designed to have excellent icebreaking capability, 2 knots in level ice with a thickness of 1.5 meters, both ahead and astern. The ship, '' Norilskiy Nickel'', was delivered from

Hietalahti shipyard Hietalahti shipyard (also known as Helsinki New Shipyard, fi, Helsingin uusi telakka) is a shipyard in Hietalahti, in downtown Helsinki, Finland. Since 2019, it has been operated by a company named Helsinki Shipyard. History The shipyard, ...

in 2006 and performed beyond expectations during ice trials in the

Yenisei Gulf The Yenisey Gulf (russian: Енисейский залив, ''Yeniseysky zaliv'') is a large and long estuary through which the lower Yenisey flows into the Kara Sea. The Yenisey Gulf and its islands belong to the Krasnoyarsk Krai administrative ...

. Four additional ships, with an option for fifth, were ordered in 2007 from Aker Yards's shipyards in Germany, with deliveries in the second half of 2008 (''

Monchegorsk Monchegorsk (russian: Мончего́рск) is a town in Murmansk Oblast, Russia, located on the Kola Peninsula, south of Murmansk, the administrative center of the oblast. Population: 52,242 ( 2002 Census); 68,652 ( 1989 Census). Name Th ...

'', '' Zapolyarny'' and ''

Talnakh Talnakh (russian: Талнах) was a town located about north of Norilsk at the foot of the Putoran Mountains in Taymyr Peninsula, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. In 2005 the town was merged into Norilsk. Population: It is the site of the mines se ...

'') and early 2009 ('' Nadezdha'').Norilsk Nickel
Publications
, 2006-07-17. Norilsk Nickel
Norilsk Nickel completed creation of its own arctic fleet
2009-02-26. Later an oil tanker derivative of the same design was constructed by Nordic Yards. On 22 March 2011 Gaiamare, a subsidiary of Meriaura, ordered a double acting multipurpose cargo ship designed especially for demanding projects such as transporting

wind turbines A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. Wi ...

to offshore installations. The new vessel, ''Meri'', was built by STX Finland Turku shipyard and delivered in June 2012. The environmentally friendly ship, designed to run on biofuel, can also be used in oil spill cleanup — the vessel can be equipped with skimmers and has 2,700 m³ of tanks for recovered oil. The diesel-electric propulsion with two Siemens Schottel

thrusters and two bow thrusters allows the ship to maneuver and even move sideways at low speeds, considerably increasing the oil recovery rate.STX Finland Turun telakalle erikoisalustilausMeriteollisuus
2011-03-23. m/s "Aura II" NB1379 UNDER CONSTRUCTION
. Meriaura.

References

{{Reflist, 30em Ship types Icebreakers