Transportation will start by the end of 2007 or the beginning of 2008. Sovkomflot plans to transport 6.5 million tonnes of oil annually and has ordered two ice-class tankers each with a deadweight of 70,000 tonnes from the Admiralteisky Shipyard in St. Petersburg. The tankers will be equipped with a so-called “azipod” system, which involves two screws operating from a 17.5 MW electro-diesel installation. Each tanker can operate in ice cover up to1.2 metres thick ice, Interfax news agency reported.

According to Sovkomflot’s marketing group head, Dmitry Rusanov, oil transportation from Prirazlomnoye field will be implemented in two steps. Shuttle tankers will transport oil to a storage tanker or terminal.

“Most probably it will be Belokamenka terminal,” owned by ” Rosneft” and located the in Murmansk region, he said. Then, ocean-class tankers will transport oil from the terminal to consumers. The USA is slated to be the main consumer of oil from the Prirazlonmoye field.

“The United States is counting on this oil very much”, said Rusanov.

Sevmoeneftegaz―a subsidiary of Russia’s state-owned gas giant Gazprom―is developing the Prirazlomnoye field in terms of a product sharing agreement.