The Nothern Engineering Enterprise (Sevmash) production association
The Nothern Engineering Enterprise (Sevmash) production association
Russia's largest ship-building complex is located on the bank of Nikolsky branch of the Severnaya Dvina mouth, which provides a direct passage to the White Sea. It was on 21 December 1939 that it officially began operating, i.e. started building its first battleship "Soviet Belarus".
During World War II, the construction of the plant was halted. Its personnel were to maintain the battleships of the Northern fleet as well as the allies' vessels. In the war years, 139 ships were repaired and the plant began producing turret artillery units and mine-sweeping equipment.
In 1944, the ship-building programme began to be restored to its former scope. By the mid 1950s, the plant provided the fleet with 23 big submarine chasers, two cruisers, 20 destroyers and more than 30 civil vessels of various kinds (not considering fitting-out and overhaul works).
It was during the war years that the plant first turned to submarine building - it was completing two L-XIII-38 submarines together with the Baltic Plant. In the early 1950s Sevmash launched large-scale production of submarines. On May 14, 1954 the construction of the head diesel-electric submarine Project 611 was started in the shipway workshop 50. On September 11, 1955 the plant supplied the Navy with a modified submarine Project V611 - the first submarine with ballistic missiles on board. By the end of 1961 the plant had completed a batch of Project 629A submarine missile carriers, which appeared to be a weighty argument in the naval strategic armament race. By early 1962 Sevmash had supplied the Navy with 33 diesel-electric submarines.
On September 24, 1955 the construction of the first Soviet submarine equipped with a nuclear power unit was started in the assembly-shipway workshop. The head submarine Project 627 was accepted for experimental operation under tactical number K-3 on December 17, 1958. In 1967, the first Soviet strategic nuclear submarine cruiser Project 667A with 16 ballistic missiles on board was handed over to the naval forces. Within the five-year period, 24 nuclear missile carriers were produced. This enabled the Soviet Union to achieve parity with the US in naval nuclear forces.
From 1972 to 1990, 60 nuclear submarines of 4 modifications - Projects 667B, 667BD, 667BDR, 667BDRM - were built. The missile complex was also updated several times. In 1969, Sevmash built the world's first nuclear submarine with a titanium alloy body, Project 661. When tested, it demonstrated a record submarine speed of 44.7 knots underwater.
In the mid 1970s, the plant underwent major reconstruction. In order to build third-generation nuclear submarines, the industrial capacity of Sevmash was doubled, and it had Russia's largest covered slipway installed. In 1980, the first nuclear submarine of the third-generation Project 949, armed with 24 anti-ship cruise missiles, was completed in the new workshop. In 1981, the plant built a head strategic nuclear submarine cruiser Project 941, armed with 20 intercontinental ballistic missiles. This submarine missile carrier entered the Guinness World Records as the world's biggest submarine. Six ships were built after Project 941. In 1983, the naval fleet received an experimental deep-water titanium nuclear submarine, Project 685, with immersion depth of up to 1000 meters - the deepest in the history of military submarine building. In 2001, the plant completed a series of multipurpose nuclear submarines, Project 971, using cutting-edge noise reduction and stealth technologies. By now, the plant has provided the naval forces with 128 nuclear submarines.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Sevmash remained the only shipyard to build nuclear submarines for the Russian naval forces. On April 15, 2007 the fourth-generation head nuclear submarine missile carrier Yury Dolgoruky was floated out of the slipway. Series ships Aleksander Nevsky (construction started in 2004) and Vladimir Monomakh (construction started in 2006) are now being built. Submarines of this type will be the linchpin of the Russian strategic naval nuclear forces in the 21st century. A batch of modern multipurpose nuclear submarines is now under construction.
Sevmash develops military and technical cooperation with foreign countries. In 2003-2005, two Project 636 diesel-electric submarines were built for the Chinese naval forces. Under the intergovernmental agreement, the plant is currently updating the Russian aircraft carrying cruiser Admiral Gorshkov for the Indian Navy. The ship is to be equipped with a Russian-built aircraft wing.
Still preserving the priority in fulfilling the state defence order, Sevmash remains the leading industrial enterprise in Arkhangelsk Region and is central for the city of Severodvinsk.
The advanced technology adopted when building the nuclear submarine fleet, is now effectively used in civil industry as well. The past 15 years have seen the production of high-tech civil products, such as sea platforms for developing offshore oil and gas fields. Nowadays, Sevmash is the only Russian plant to produce large-scale quality equipment for offshore production of oil and gas.
Sevmash regards the production of sea equipment for developing Arctic offshore deposits as a priority of its civil division.
In 1996, a Russian presidential decree made Sevmash, as the leading company of the Russian nuclear ship-building industry, the chief contractor for producing seaborne oil and gas installations.
The integration of Sevmash into the oil and gas industry was also facilitated by its geographical position, with a direct access to the White Sea and proximity to the Arctic deposits.
By the order from Gazprom, the plant is now building an ice-resistant fixed platform Prirazlomnaya for developing oil fields in the Pechora Sea. The platform is being made using unique technology which allows it to work in the harsh conditions of permafrost and air temperatures of down to -50°С.
In September, 2007 Sevmash sold its first semi-submersible oil platform, type MOSS CS-50, to the Norwegian company Moss Mosvold Platforms AS. The next similar platform is to be ready and supplied to a foreign customer in 2008.
In the future the plant will produce large engineering facilities which are to be involved in developing the Shtokman gas-condensate field and units for a gas liquefaction plant on the Yamal peninsula.
A key element of Russia's energy strategy is the use of renewable energy. To this end, Sevmash produced equipment for the country's single tidal power station Kislogubskaya. The experimental power unit built in 2006 is equipped with a unique orthogonal hydro-turbine, which keeps the same rotation direction irrespective of ebbs and flows. In 2007, the power unit was towed to the shore of the Barents Sea, erected at the Kislogubskaya power station and put into operation. At the moment, a power unit for the Solovetskaya hydro power station is under construction, and Kolskaya and Menzenskaya tidal power stations are being equipped.
The Sevmash research and testing centre performs technical diagnostics, physical-chemical analysis and non-destructive testing; it also studies physical-mechanical characteristics of materials, including metals. An efficient system of technological preparation of production defines the minimum necessary scope of organization and technical documentation for shipbuilding, the document forms are drawn up and special facilities for testing are produced and certified.
The President of Russia's decree of June 1, 2008 stipulates for the enterprise to be converted from a Federal State Unitary Enterprise into Joint-Stock Company to merge with the Northern Ship-Building and Ship Repair Centre. In turn, he latter is to merge with the United Ship-Building Corporation.
Sevmash to build platforms for offshore oil and gas deposits
The construction is based on quay 3, specially designed for carrying out completion works and dockside trials.
The quay is 500 meters long and 22 meters wide, and the depth near the wharf is 11 meters.
The quay is equipped with two dockside cranes with load capacity of 160 tons each and one with load capacity of 50 tons; the bollards, designed to hold 100 tons each, are spaced 25 meters apart.
The quay is provided with all the kinds of energy sources (electric power, steam, compressed air, water) necessary for completing and testing items.
At the moment the quay is being lengthened by 50 meters.
Prirazlomnaya Platform. The world's first platform of this type is produced for the development of Prirazlomnoye oil field in the Pechora Sea. Uniquely, the platform is to work in extreme climatic conditions - pack ice and temperatures as low as - 50°C. The platform's bottom basement parameters are 126x126 meters, with a height up to the top of the flare stack of 120 meters, and the whole structure weighs about 110.000 tons; the caisson tanks are to contain 110.000 cubic meters of oil, and the residential block can house 200 workers.
The platform is designed to perform year-round production drilling and is equipped with a drill tower, two cranes and a helicopter pad.
Sevmash began building the platform back in 1995; however, designing and financial difficulties, and the mastering of new production techniques, including welding cold-resistant steels, held back the process. Today the Prirazlomanaya platform is assembled and moored to the completion quay.
The production technology is just as unique as the platform itself. Prirazlomnaya consists of a gravity-type support caisson and top structures. The caisson is built up of four superblocks produced in Sevmash workshops, floated out and fastened afloat with the use of a special Sevmash technology, which involves underwater welding. It was the first time such structures were joined in this way, which earned Sevmash the Lomonosov technology award. The top structures of Prirazlomnaya consist of modified parts of a used platform purchased for the purpose by the customer.
In order to build the Prirazlomnaya platform in cooperation with Gazprom, Sevmash was thoroughly modernized, which demanded tens of millions of dollars in investment.
"Moss CS-50" Oil Platform. In September, 2007, Sevmash sold its first oil platform Moss CS-50 to the Norwegian company "Moss Mosvold Platforms AS". The platform is to be completed in Italy with a drilling unit for working in the North Sea. The second platform is now being accomplished. The platform "Moss CS-50 Mkll" belongs to the sixth generation of semisubmersible platforms and presents a catamaran-like construction, placed on two pontoons and six stabilizing columns. The parameters of the platform are 118 x 70 x 40 metres, and the weight is about 15.000 tons. The hull is fully equipped, while the deck is left empty, so that it can be provided with any necessary installations depending on the functions of the platform.
