Russia’s governmental port property management agency Rosmorport has awarded a contract for building two innovative 12-14 MWt dual-fuel Project 23620 icebreakers to Onego Shipyard. The contract is worth 18.5 bn rubles ($248.4 mn).
The vessels will have Icebreaker 7 notation. They will be capable of navigating in 1.5-meter thick ice year-round in the Baltic, White and Barents Seas and in the Pacific basin with an unlimited sailing area.
The icebreakers will be the first vessels of the type to be built in Russia, and the first Russian-made dual-fuel icebreakers utilizing a LNG-powered propulsion unit. Using LNG will allow of cutting CO2 emission by 20-30%, NOx emission by more than 90%, and particles by practically 100% compared to vessels using heavy fuel oil.
Project 23620 is also the world’s first icebreaker design utilizing the DYNPOS-2 dynamic positioning technology.
Rosmorport is to build 10 new icebreakers by 2027 under the Comprehensive infrastructure modernization and development plan.