Yevgeny Primakov is one of the best vessels in her class, in terms of technical characteristics. The vessel is designed for operations in the difficult ice and navigational conditions of the Far East Sea Basin (Sea of Okhotsk).

Her design and construction reflects many years of experience accumulated by Sovcomflot (SCF Group) while working in the Sakhalin-1 and Sakhalin-2 projects.

Image Credits: http://sovcomflot.ru

SCF Group is currently the world’s leader in the number of icebreaking supply and standby vessels under management.

The vessel’s design and equipment mean she can effectively ensure the safe operation of offshore oil and gas production platforms, including in ice conditions, through preventing the formation of hummocks and heavy ice fields around the platforms, by breaking any surrounding ice formations, etc.

The vessel will also provide standby search and rescue support all year-round. She will be able to respond promptly to potential emergencies, and carry out underwater engineering and repair works where necessary.

Image Credits: http://sovcomflot.ru

Deploying such vessels on standby duty in the Sea of Okhotsk, on a permanent basis, contributes significantly to improving environmental safety in the Far East Sea Basin.

The vessel’s propulsion system (comprised of two Azipod units with a total capacity of 13 MW) ensures high levels of manoeuvrability, and allows her to sail through ice up to 1.5 m thick with a snow cover of up to 20 cm. She also has a large passenger capacity, despite relatively small dimensions. Yevgeny Primakov can normally provide sleeping accommodation for 70 persons (besides her crew), and in the event of an emergency can accommodate up to 150 people.

Yevgeny Primakov sails under the Russian flag and has Saint Petersburg as her home port. She is manned by an all-Russian crew of 26 people.

The naming ceremony was attended by: Dmitry Rogozin, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia; Sergey Movchan, Vice-Governor of Saint Petersburg; Viktor Olersky, Deputy Minister of Transport and Head of the Federal Agency for Marine and River Transport; Ole Myklestad, Production Director at Sakhalin Energy; Alexey Rakhmanov, President of the United Shipbuilding Corporation; Sergey Frank, President and CEO of Sovcomflot. Family members of Yevgeny Primakov attended the ceremony as guests of honour.

A group of cadets from the Admiral Makarov State University of Maritime and Inland Shipping, who were selected for Sovcomflot’s training programme and will work on SCF vessels in the future, also took part in the ceremony.