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MT ''Varzuga'' (''Варзуга'') is a Russian product tanker operated by Murmansk Shipping Company. After her modernization in 1993 she became the first merchant ship to be equipped with Azipod, an electric azimuth thruster developed in Finland in the late 1980s.〔Juurmaa, K et al.: The development of the double acting tanker for ice operation, Aker Arctic Technology Inc., (2001 ) and (2002 ).〕 She was also the first non-Soviet ship to transit the Northern Sea Route.〔 ==History== ''Uikku'', built in 1977 by Werft Nobiskrug GmbH in Rendsburg, Germany, was the last ship of a series of four arctic product tankers ordered by a Finnish oil and petroleum products company Neste Oyj in the 1970s. The ships were given names after Finnish seabirds and the silhouettes of their namesake birds were painted on the side of the ships' superstructure. ''Lunni'' (Atlantic puffin) and ''Sotka'' (Aythya) were delivered in 1976 and ''Tiira'' (tern) and ''Uikku'' (grebe) in the following year. Until the 1990s the ships were used mainly to transport oil products in the Baltic Sea.〔 In 1993 ''Uikku'' was chartered to a newly founded Arctic Shipping Services to ship petroleum products in the Arctic Ocean. The new shipping company, based in Murmansk, was a joint operation between two Russian companies, Murmansk Shipping Company and Primorsk Shipping Company, and a Finnish company Nemarc Shipping Oy, which in turn was a joint venture shipping company owned by Neste and Kværner Masa-Yards. The ship's propulsion machinery was modernized for navigation in the harsh ice conditions of the Arctic Ocean in 1993 and her ice-strengthening was increased in 1998.〔〔〔(Final public report of the ARCDEV project ), Transport Research Knowledge Centre.〕〔Hänninen, S: (Ship based observations onboard MT Uikku during the winter 2003 ), 11/2003.〕 In the following years ''Uikku'' operated in the Baltic Sea in winter and in the Northern Sea Route during summer months.〔Juurmaa, K et al.: (New ice breaking tanker concept for the arctic (DAT) ). Kvaerner Masa-Yards, 1995.〕 In 1997 ''Uikku'' became the first merchant ship under non-Soviet flag to navigate the entire Northern Sea Route. In the following year she took part in Arctic Demonstration and Exploratory Voyage (ARCDEV), a research project funded by the European Union to determine the feasibility of year-around navigation in the Northern Sea Route. ''Uikku'', accompanied by a Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker NS ''Rossiya'' to open the way and a research icebreaker ''Kapitan Dranitsyn'' to provide facilities to 70 researchers from different countries, carried a cargo of gas condensate from Ob river estuary to Europe.〔〔(Arctic Demonstration and Exploratory Voyage ), Projects & Analysis, Transport Research Knowledge Centre.〕 Fortum sold ''Uikku'', mainly due to her age exceeding 25 years, to Murmansk Shipping Company in 2003. She was renamed ''Varzuga'' (''Варзуга'') after the Varzuga River.〔 As Fortum is a state-owned company, the selling of two oil tankers capable of navigating in severe ice conditions resulted in a written question to the Parliament of Finland by Representative Pentti Tiusanen about whether the ships should be retained in Finnish control as they could be used to lighten a grounded oil tanker in harsh winter conditions.〔(KK 137/2003 vp ), Pentti Tiusanen /vas〕 The ship has since been used for oil transportation in the Arctic Ocean. Along with her sister ship ''Indiga'' (ex-''Lunni''), sold to Russians at the same time, she has been involved in transporting oil from an oil terminal in the Ob Bay of the Kara Sea through the Kara Gates, the strait between Vaygach and Novaya Zemlya, to FSO ''Belokamenka'' in the Kola Bay of the Barents Sea.〔Bambulyak, A and Frantzen, B: (Oil transport from the Russian part of the Barents Region, Status per January 2009 ), page 41. Retrieved on 2010-02-05.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「MT Varzuga」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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