The vessels will have a deadweight of 116,000 tons, which includes 10% more steel weight than conventional Aframax tankers. Their hulls, main engines and equipment will meet Finnish/Swedish ice class 1A specifications.
With main engines developing as much as 85% more power than existing conventional tonnage, the vessels are among the largest and most powerful ice-strengthened tankers ever to be built.
The tankers will be named Stena Arctica and Stena Antarctica and will have a length of 250 metres and a beam of 44 metres.
Their primary traffic area will be the Baltic Sea, transporting crude oil mainly from Russian ports. In the area of safety, no efforts have been spared. The vessels will have full double hulls, not only round the cargo tanks but also round bunker tanks and lube oil tanks. Oily ballast water will also be protected by the double hull. The main engine will have a double back-up system so that no single system fault will be able to shut down the vessels' machinery.
Like Stena's MAX vessels, the bridge will have a 360-degree view for greater safety in narrow waters. The vessels will satisfy the latest UPS class (Uninterrupted Power Supply) with back-up systems for both navigation and the control units in the engine room.
Finnish/Swedish ice class 1A means that the vessels will be able to sail in waters with up to 1 metre thick ice.
The order of the Stena Arctica and the Stena Antarctica is part of Stena Bulk's investment in high-class tonnage for oil transport from Russia via ports in the Baltic Sea. The Stena Bulk office recently opened in Moscow will provide the Russian oil companies with a local chartering service.
The strategy includes the order placed by Stena's listed sister company Concordia Maritime earlier this year for four Stena P-MAX tankers, built to ice class 1B specifications, which means that they will be able to sail through 0.8 metres thick ice. The sharply increasing exports of Russian petroleum from the Russian section of the Baltic Sea will require an investment in quality tonnage adapted to the conditions in the area. The Nordic countries have expressed their alarm at the increasing volume of oil transported through narrow channels, which are periodically covered by ice, and say that this requires a planned and carefully considered addition of tonnage designed for the task of transporting oil in an environmentally friendly and safe manner. The new vessels will be an important resource in this respect.
Stena's previously owned bulk carrier Stena Arctica, built at Eriksberg in 1978, carried out safe and successful voyages for many years in extreme ice conditions in the Arctic, the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia.
In 1989, the Stena Arctica transported a Swedish scientific expedition from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to the Antarctic and reached what was at that time the most southerly position ever reached by a merchant ship: 78 degrees south, 22.1 minutes.
For Stena, this investment in shipping in icy waters is nothing new. Solid experience lies behind the new vessels, which are designed to offer safe, economic and reliable transportation in the Nordic region.
Stena Bulk operates 40 ships with a total deadweight of 4.2 million tons and is active in the international tanker and bulk-carrier markets. Stena Bulk has offices in Gothenburg, London, Moscow, New York, Houston and Singapore.
For further information, please contact:
Ulf G. Ryder, President, Stena Bulk AB
Phone, office +46-31 855001
Mobile +46-704 855001
Home +46-302 13174