The vessel was built in JSC Volgograd Shipyard (OAO Volgogradskiy Sudostroitelnyy Zavod), Volgograd, Russia as hull No. 303 and the keel was laid on 14.04.1998. She was launched on 28.08.1999, as "LUKOIL 3" and was delivered as the "PECHORA RIVER" to her owners Cristallina Shipping Ltd., Valletta, Malta on 15.06.2000 in the port of Rostov. IMO No: 9175171.Official No: 6872, call sign: 9HRH6.
This vessel is a double bottom/double hull tanker with ice class, designed for service at sea and on major rivers. The hull is divided into 5 pairs of cargo tanks, each tank served by one electrical deep-well cargo pump. Much of the machinery and equipment was supplied from Western manufacturers. The main engine is a 6 cylinder trunk piston diesel engine from MAK in Germany, type: 6M25M with 1800 kW at 750 RPM, coupled via a reversing and reduction gearbox to a solid propeller, turning at 230 RPM. For added manoeuvrability a tunnel type bow thruster of 240 kW is installed. Electrical power is supplied by 3 diesel generators, made by Volvo-Penta, 6 cylinders, each 247 kW at 1500 RPM. All cargo operation is remotely controlled from a console in the wheel house.
The "PECHORA RIVER" is named after the river Pechora, a river in Northern Russia, discharging into the Pechora Gulf at the Barents Sea.
29.07.2004: At 03:40 a.m. collided with the containership "Maersk Flensburg" (9990/2002) about 30 kilometres off Petten on the Dutch coast. Both ships having been on a voyage to Bremen and sustained only minor damage.
06.10.2004: Sold and delivered at St. Petersburg to Pechora River Co. Ltd. (Management Palmali Shipping Co. Ltd., Istanbul), , Valletta and renamed "CASPIAN MARINER".
Volgograd
Volgograd is located at the lower part of the river Volga about 1000 km south of Moscow and about 400 km before the Volga reaches the Caspian Sea near Astrachan (28 m below sea level). Volgograd was founded in the 16th. Century and was named Zarizyn until in 1925 it became Stalingrad. During the second world war the town was the scene of the "battle of Stalingrad". In 1962 it received its today’s name Volgograd.
The Volga river is connected with the Black Sea (near Rostov) via the Volga-Don Canal, which has various locks. Upriver, the Volga is connected with canals to the Baltic Sea and to the White Sea.
In 1954 the construction of a huge dam with locks and an electrical power station was commenced near Volgograd and on this lake the sea trials of the vessel were conducted. Due to the local navigation rules on the Volga-Don Canal the vessel was delivered in Rostov.