“Shturman Albanov” delivered oil from Novoportovskoye field to Murmansk

The tanker of Sovcomflot “Shturman Albanov” delivered another cargo of crude oil to the Kola Bay. The unloading operation has been already completed, as murman.tv reports.

The district of the settlement Belokamenka is situated on the western coast of the Kola Bay. It is the place, where NOVATEK is creating the center for building of large-tonnage sea constructions for development of gas fields. The tanker of Sovcomflot “Shturman Albanov” was moored at the terminal “Umba”. The vessel delivered another cargo from Yamal. The tanker “Shturman Albanov” comes to the Kola Bay regularly. It delivers crude oil from Novoportovskoye field. It works in the Gulf of Ob in conditions of year-round navigation. In the Kara Sea and the Gulf of Ob the past winter, as it is possible to say, checked the ship for strength. The ice situation was extremely difficult. It was not like this during about 10 years. As the captain of the tanker “Shturman Albanov” Vyacheslav Gafurov informs, vessels of such type are designed for independent navigation without icebreaker support the whole year round. “We have been successfully coping with this task since 2016. Power, hull strength and excellent maneuverability”, he said. The vessels overcome two-meter ice. The small draft of the ship is purposed specifically for shallow waters of the Gulf of Ob. Tanks are filled through the terminal several miles away from the shore. It is called “Vorota Arktiki” (“The gate of the Arctic”). Oil flows through it along the pipeline from the shore. The task is performed from the cargo control room. It is even a little bit easier to receive oil into the tanks, being situated in the ice. The senior assistant captain of the tanker “Shturman Albanov” Kirill Kudin notes that the difficulty is in so that on clean water, where there is no ice, it needs to hold steady, because high and low tides work. Therefore, it needs to use the Azipod thrusters to hold the ship directly near the tower. The next trip to the east will begin for the crew of the tanker immediately after the unloading operation. Murmansk will again welcome “Shturman Albanov” – even two weeks will not pass.