On 17 September 2015 the Krylov State Research Centre in St. Petersburg was visited by a team of top managers from construction and engineering company Kvaerner, Norway. This visit began a dialogue between Kvaerner and Krylov Centre regarding their cooperation in prospective oil & gas projects in Russia.

This meeting took place at the time when St. Petersburg hosts the 12th International Conference and Exhibition for Oil and Gas Resources Development of the Russian Arctic and Continental Shelf (RAO/CIS Offshore 2015). The Norwegian delegation was led by Kvaerner President & CEO Jan Arve Haugan. The guests were received by Krylov Centre’s Deputy Director Vladimir Dyukov.

During this visit the Kvaerner team had an opportunity to learn more about the Krylov Centre capabilities. Among the facilities toured by the delegation were unique assets of the Centre — ice and offshore basins. The ice basin was commissioned in the late 2014, while the offshore basin is yet under construction and scheduled to be put into operation in 2016. Together these two facilities will provide advanced test & verification solutions for marine platforms designed for the Arctic offshore as well as other vessels intended for various climatic conditions.

The Krylov Centre is one of the internationally recognized leaders in R&Ds for marine applications. In particular, it is known for excellent expertise in state-of-the-art technologies for the northern seas. Over the last two years the Krylov State Research Centre has taken concerted efforts to foster its competences in this field. The Arctic Engineering Centre set up by the Krylov Centre is now acting as an integrator for the Russian developers of Arctic marine technologies.

The familiarization tour of the Krylov Centre was followed by discussions on potential areas of cooperation in marine projects as well as localization of the Russian oil & gas industry.

Director of the Russian Kvaerner Office Dmitry Akimov said, «Our multi-year experience of the international oil & gas industry suggests that a ticket to success for Kvaerner in Russia is cooperation with highly qualified partners like Krylov Centre. The agenda of the first meeting included high-priority issues of strategic development of both companies».
Deputy Director General of Krylov Centre Vladimir Dyukov noted, «Further development of arctic technologies is among priorities of the Krylov Centre. Buildup of relevant experimental infrastructure comes along with these efforts. Today our Centre is one of the major world’s research centres able to perform a broad range of investigations for advancement of arctic marine facilities. With the competence and knowledge of Kvaerner the Russian Arctic projects can be implemented even more efficiently and safely».

During the meeting the parties discussed further steps towards joint design and production of marine facilities as well localization of production for the Russian oil & gas project in Arctic.

Kvaerner President & CEO Jan Arve Haugan has stressed that today’s meeting intended for encouraging further collaboration is a big step forward in building up confident business relationships for long-term cooperation in Russian marine projects. Kvaerner recognizes and ready to operate in keeping with the regulations applicable to the business in Russia.