By RIA Novosti
Vladivostok : A new supertanker built in South Korea for a Russian company has set off on its debut voyage to the Pacific Coast of the United States, a spokesman for a Russian shipping company said on Tuesday.
The Zaliv America is one of several supertankers that South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., the world’s largest shipbuilder, is building for Russia’s Primorsk Shipping Company.
“The new vessel successfully completed a week-long series of tests in the Sea of Japan,” said Yelena Dergunova, head of the information department at the company, which is based in the Russian Far East.
She said that during the tests, all the mechanisms and navigation systems of the giant tanker, with deadweight of 104,000 metric tons, had proved highly reliable.
Under a contract with the Russian company, Hyundai Heavy Industries is to build six ice-class tankers capable of operating in northern waters without the assistance of icebreakers.
The Primorsk Shipping Company delivers fuel to Russia’s northern ports. The company has a total carrying capacity of over one million tons and plans to raise this figure to at least two million tons by 2010.