FSUE Atomflot (an enterprise of ROSATOM) has summed up the results of 2017. According to the results, 492 ships of the total gross tonnage of 7.17 million tons passed the Northern Sea Route assisted by nuclear ice-breakers in 2017 (for comparison, in 2016 there were 410 ships of the gross tonnage of 5.28 million tons).
“Off-shipment of hydrocarbon products is the key factor of the nuclear icebreaker fleet demand. In future, the escort numbers will rise. Crews of the port nuclear icebreakers and tow boats are maximum responsible for their contractual commitments. This is the best ads of their work for their potential clients,” Mustafa Kashka, Chief Engineer of Atomflot, says.
Atomflot ensures stable annual growth of earnings. This is due to the work the company does to keep the existing icebreaker service consumers and to find new clients. In 2017, earnings of the company grew up to RUB 6,622 million (in 2013 – RUB 1,828 million). In total, over five years (2013 to 2017) this indicator grew up by 3.6 times.
Labor efficiency grew from RUB 1,511,000 in 2013 up to RUB 3,667,000 in 2017. The indicator was up by 243%.
Mustafa Kashka says: “Based on the 2016 results, for the first time the united atomic technological complex has been formed, the company has got the net profit of RUB 1,201 million due to company’s effective performance. The positive financial result was kept in 2017: Rosatomflot’s net profit is estimated at RUB 696 million based on the year results.”
In 2017, Rosatomflot completed planned works to extend service lives of reactors at the Vaygach and Taimyr icebreakers up to 200,000 hours. The operation time of the icebreakers was increased to 5 years.
The planned implementation of the icebreaker reactor life extension program allows Atomflot completely excluding an “ice pause” and smoothly starting operation of universal nuclear icebreakers of Project 22220 while strictly following the contractual commitments.
The Baltijskiy Zavod – Sudostroyenie continues building universal nuclear icebreakers (UNI) of Project 22220. In September 2017, the first UNI Sibir was launched. The leading UNI Arktika will be set off in mid-2019; the first series-build nuclear icebreaker Sibir – November 2020 and the second series-build nuclear icebreaker Ural – in November 2021.
In 2017, Atomflot continued its Portoflot project. It was established by Rosatomflot as part of the global Yamal LNG project which is implemented in the Russia’s Arctic Zone. The building of a port icebreaker, two icebreaker towing boats and two tow boats of ice class are to ensure round-the-year safe berthing of large-capacity ships at berths of Sabetta Port.
In November 2017, the icebreaker towing boat Yuribei of Project T40105 was put in operation. It is of ice class Arc 6 that allows the ship to render specialized services to large-size vehicles carrying liquefied natural gas and stable gas condensate. In December 2017, the Yuribei took part in loading the first batch of Yamal LNG.
The contract for the port fleet services is in effect till December 2040 with potential prolongation to two periods of 5 years each.
The “Atomflot’s Plan of Measures to Hold the Environmental Year in 2017” was implemented. The company operates with no spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste accumulating.
In 2017, the disposal of the nuclear icebreaker Sibir and floating maintenance base Lepse continued.
In June 2017, the off-shipment of the first batch of spent nuclear fuel from Andreeva Bay’s storage facility for further reprocessing at the Rosatomflot’s lighter ship Rossita was the important event for rehabilitation of the North-West Region.
The positive developments of Atomflot and the work to conclude long-term contracts on ice-breaking services in large-scale projects in the Arctic Zone of Russia are expected to allow Rosatomflot to keep with pace in all main businesses of the company in 2018.