OREANDA-NEWS. November 5, 2008. The launching and naming ceremony for a new tanker Mikhail Ulyanov – the first ship in the series of Arctic shuttle tankers of 70,000 dwt ordered by Sovcomflot in St. Petersburg – took place at the Admiralty Shipyards on 31 October 2008. For the first time such unique vessels are being constructed at Russia’s shipbuilding yards. Arctic shuttle tankers have been specially designed to transport oil by sea from Russian offshore oil fields in the Arctic, and have been chartered out to Sevmorneftegaz (a subsidiary of Gazprom) for a long-term time-charter. All the tankers of the series will be registered in the Russian International Register of Shipping and will be operated under the State flag of the Russian Federation.

The event was attended by Valentina Matvienko, the Governor of St. Petersburg; Aleksandr Avdeyev, the Minister of Culture; Sergey Shishkarev, the Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Transport; Vladimir Pakhomov, the President of the United Shipbuilding Corporation; by representatives of Sovcomflot and Sevmorneftegaz.