2023-09-11 21:33:37
Vladimir Putin began a working trip to the Far East, during which he will take part in the Eastern Economic Forum. Putin began his Far Eastern business trip with a visit to the Zvezda shipyard in the city of Bolshoi Kamen, an hour and a half drive from Vladivostok. The President went there by helicopter directly from the airport. He was met on the spot by Igor Sechin, chief executive officer of Rosneft, which has been implementing the project de facto since 2016.
The Zvezda shipyard, which is being created on Putin’s instructions, spreads over 250 hectares – it is the largest shipbuilding complex in Russia. In less than seven years, the shipyard has put into operation the main technological facilities required for the construction and launching of ships – including a dry dock, one of the largest in the world. Zvezda has already launched 12 vessels (of which four oil tankers have been handed over to customers and are operating at sea – Vedomosti), and another 23 are actively being built.
In total, Zvezda’s order portfolio includes regarding 60 vessels, and the anchor customer for 26 of them is “Rosneft” The industry interlocutor assesses the pace of increasing orders and providing opportunities for their execution as record-breaking. Zvezda Deputy General Director for Production Maxim Plugin told reporters that shipbuilding in Russia is now beginning to revive, and cited the example of South Korea, which at one time began to invest in this industry, relying on it as the locomotive of the economy: now this has yielded results , the country is considered one of the leaders in shipbuilding.
Putin took part in the naming ceremony of two Arctic ice-class tankers that had just been launched. “It can withstand regarding 12 force storms,” Sechin told Putin, not without pride, regarding the ice-class gas tanker ARC7, which was named “Alexei Kosygin” in honor of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR in 1964–1980. The vessel was built by order of Novatek and Sovcomflot for the Arctic LNG-2 project. The second tanker, a reinforced ice-class shuttle ARC6, will be named “Valentin Pikul” in honor of the Soviet writer, author of numerous works of fiction on historical and naval themes. It is being built by order of Rosnefteflot and will transport oil along the Northern Sea Route, including from Rosneft’s Vostok Oil project.
At the naming ceremony, Putin said that this was “a significant event for Russian shipbuilding and for the country’s transport industry.” “Two new vessels of the civil fleet will be given their names. The oil tanker will bear the name of our writer, beloved by many, Valentin Savvich Pikul, whose work is largely dedicated to national history, our fleet, and the defenders of our Far Eastern borders. And the gas tanker is named in honor of the statesman, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Alexei Nikolaevich Kosygin, a man who made a huge contribution to the development of the Far East, our entire country, the economy, its key industries, and proved himself to be a talented organizer during the Great Patriotic War,” – said the president.
Putin expressed confidence that “the new ships will be worthy of these illustrious names.” “After all, these are modern, powerful sea vessels equipped with the latest technology, without exaggeration, one of the best in their class in the world. “They are capable of operating at extremely low temperatures, in harsh climatic conditions, passing through ice barriers, and transporting large volumes of oil and gas,” the president said.
The development of such a fleet is of great importance for the country and is in demand for the implementation of a long-term strategy for the development of the Arctic, “to ensure reliable transportation on the Northern Sea Route, on global transport and logistics routes, to strengthen the energy security of our country, and the whole world,” Putin said. He thanked the engineers, designers, workers of the Zvezda shipyards, “everyone who invested their talent, labor, professional knowledge into the construction of new ships, and worked with maximum efficiency.” The shipyard team will have to solve “new important tasks, including increasing the localization of production and the widespread use of domestic developments and solutions,” the president said. “I am absolutely sure that with each new ship delivered, the level of localization on Zvezda will constantly increase,” Putin said. He wished the crews “a fair wind and seven feet under the keel.”
For each vessel, a “godmother” was chosen in advance. In “Valentin Pikul” it is a native of Primorye, cosmonaut pilot and Hero of Russia Elena Serova, in “Alexey Kosygin” it is the chief physician of the Primorsky Regional Perinatal Center Tatyana Kurleeva. After the president’s speech, they smashed a bottle of Russian champagne on the sides of the tankers. This is a sailors’ tradition, they say on Zvezda: the neck of each bottle, along with a portrait of the “godmother,” will be kept on ships while sailing across all seas.
After the naming ceremony, the president, together with Sechin, got acquainted with the development of the infrastructure of Bolshoy Kamen. Since 2016, housing has been built in several microdistricts of the city – within a radius of 2 km from Zvezda. 36 houses with 2,500 apartments have been built for shipyard employees, and plans for 80 houses with 5,795 apartments by the end of 2024.
After that, Putin flew by helicopter to Russky Island.
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