BOLSHOY KAMEN (Primorsky Krai), September 1. /TASS/. Russia’s Independent Oil and Gas Company can order up to ten tankers at the Zvezda shipyard (in the Russian Far East), the company’s President, Eduard Khudainatov, told reporters on Thursday.
"We held talks, we are currently at the stage of preparation for ordering tankers at Zvezda," he said. "At the moment we can see that may need up to ten tankers. Everything will depend on geological prospecting work at the Payakhskoye group of fields (in Siberia). We will see a year or two years later what it will show. To launch the project we need at least three tankers."
ExxonMobil order
US company ExxonMobil orders two tankers at the Zvezda shipyard, CEO of Rosneft Igor Sechin told reporters.
"Two tankers," he said, responding to a question about the order by ExxonMobil.
The Zvezda shipyard is being built in the town of Bolshoy Kamen in Russia’s Primorsky Krai (Maritime Territory) since 2009. The project was initially launched by Russia’s United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) and South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. Ltd. (DSME).
In 2012, the DSME withdrew from the project, and the USC lost a 75-percent package (minus to shares) of the Far Eastern Shipbuilding and Ship Repair Center (including the Zvezda shipyard and some other shipbuilding companies) to the Modern Shipbuilding Technologies consortium set up by Gazprombank and Rosneft.