Our Arctic Neighbors: Rolls-Royce expands Russian Arctic reach

Renowned multinational will supply mooring equipment for drilling rigs, construction of which has just begun at Vyborg shipyard

Sarah Hurst

For Petroleum News

Rolls-Royce has won a contract to supply mooring equipment for two ice-class drilling rigs to be operated in Russia’s Shtokman natural gas field in the Barents Sea, the company said June 20. The contract value is about $19.8 million. The equipment is for Moss CS50 MK II drilling rigs and has been designed for operation down to minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit. The rigs will be operated by Gazflot, a wholly owned subsidiary of Russian state energy major Gazprom.

The mooring system has been designed to work safely through a redundant dynamic braking and control system, with an intuitive and interactive interface. The Rolls-Royce deck machinery facility in Brattvaag, Norway, will manufacture and deliver the equipment to Vyborg shipyard in Russia and Samsung Heavy Industry in Korea, which are jointly constructing the rigs.

“This is a breakthrough for Rolls-Royce and is in line with our strategy for developing deck machinery for Arctic areas,” said Arne Tande, the company’s vice president for offshore deck machinery.

Vyborg shipyard started construction of the first of the two drilling rigs in early July, heralding the occasion with a ceremony attended by high-ranking officials from Gazflot. “We have today made another important step towards the conquering of the Russian Arctic shelf and the subsequent development of it into a new oil and gas region,” Gazflot head Yuri Shamalov said. Only the most modern, environmentally safe equipment will be used in the Shtokman project, he added.