Azerbaijan, Baku, November 12 / Trend, A. Akhundov /
The State Standardization, Metrology and Patents Committee of Azerbaijan will establish a special technical committee to work out national shipbuilding standards, Committee Chairman Ramiz Hasanov told journalists on Friday.
"Once construction of a shipbuilding plant in Azerbaijan is over, there will be worked out respective standards," Hasanov said.
He noted that works on the establishment of a Technical Oil & Gas Committee are underway.
"In addition, we establish committees on the analogy with the technical committees of the International Standardization Organization (ISO). About 15 such committees have already been created," Hasanov said.
The shipyard will be built by a joint venture where the SOCAR holds 65 percent interest, the Azerbaijani Investment Company holds 25 percent, and Keppel holds the rest 10 percent.
Keppel will be responsible for operation of to-be shipyard. The shipyard will be built at the price of shareholder capital (30 percent of the total financing) and a bank loan (the rest 70 percent).
The shipyard will build ships for the Caspian Oil Fleet and Caspian Shipping Company, warships, and ships for the State Frontier Service. The new facility also will be specialized in buildup of large-tonnage Caspian Max tankers with the deadweight of 60,000 to 70,000 tons of cargoes. On top of that, the shipyard will be specialized in repair of ships.
The new shipyard is expected to build the first ship in 2013.
The shipyard's area will be 880,000 square meters, including 75,000 square meters as the authorized production area. The extent of moorages will be 1,300 meters.
Investments in construction of the shipyard are valued at a total of $450 million.
The shipyard's production capacity will be equivalent to 25,000 tons of metallic constructions per annum. It will be capable of producing four tankers each with the deadweight of 15,000 tons and two tankers each with the deadweight of 70,000 tons per year. In addition, it will be capable of producing four tugging ships and repairing 80 to 100 ships of various designations per year.