Rolls-Royce has won a breakthrough contract in the expanding Arctic exploration and production offshore market. It is to supply mooring equipment for two ice-class drilling rigs to be operated in the Shtokman field, one of the world’s largest natural gas fields, in the Russian sector of the Barents Sea. The contract value is about £10 million.

Øystein Ryste and Arne Skodje, area sales managers Offshore E&P, who worked together on the contract, said the Moss CS50 MK II equipment has been designed for the special requirements of operating in ice and is classified to the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping standards for operation down to -30°C. The rigs will be operated by Gazflot, a wholly-owned company of Gazprom.

This will give Rolls-Royce valuable experience in this expanding sector. Arne Tande, Vice President - Offshore deck machinery, said: “This is a breakthrough for Rolls-Royce and is in line with our strategy for developing deck machinery for Arctic areas.”

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 will manufacture and deliver the mooring equipment to Vyborg Shipyard in Russia and Samsung Heavy Industry in Korea, who will are jointly building the ships.

Earlier this year, Rolls-Royce won a contract from The Norwegian Institute of Marine Research and the Norwegian Polar Institute to design a research vessel to carry out significant environmental research at both the North and South Poles. The NVC 395 POLAR ship will be designed for operations in waters covered by ice up to one metre thick and is classified to Polar 10 ice class.

The Danish and Norwegian navies, and Icelandic coastguard already operate a number of Rolls-Royce designed Arctic patrol vessels.

Tags: Rolls-Royce, Shtokman field