Finnish marine architect Deltamarin and Finnish yard Aker Arctic Technology have jointly developed a new aframax-sized tanker design for Arctic use, focusing on safe operations.
The ice-strengthened vessel aims to provide cost-efficient and reliable tanker operations both in open water and in ice for crude oil and oil product transport.
The vessel is strengthened to ice class PC5 level, about equal to Russian Maritime Register of Shipping category ARC6, and is capable of continuously breaking ice that is thicker than 1m.
It can operate on the Northern Sea Route during the extended summer months, and with assistance even longer.
During the winter months the vessel can operate in other sub-Arctic sea areas such as the Baltic Sea or Sakhalin in the Russian Far East.
Deltamarin’s director of Ship Design, Markku Miinala, and Aker Arctic’s project manager, Riku Kiili, said the specially designed hull strengthening aims to improve safety in operations in Arctic waters.
Image: Aker Arctic Technology
The hull is equipped with an Ice Load Monitoring System, which measures ice loads from the hull and provides online support to the officers ensuring safe operations. The system will also help the ship owner in the long term by analysing the data and creating information for the optimal operations. The emphasis has also been on winterisation for cold climates in all aspects of the concept design.
The vessel is equipped with two CP-propellers and shaft lines directly coupled with slow speed diesel engines. The vessel can also be fitted to run on LNG with dual fuel engines.
Further there is a possibility for two bow thrusters and shaft PTO/PTI (Power Take Off / Power Take In) systems. A special focus has been on developing an improved command bridge, where the new Aker Arctic ARC Bridge Concept was used. The visibility from the bridge is excellent in all directions and good ergonomics including access and passages to command posts is created.
Source: akerarctic.fi