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8Maritime Reporter & Engineering News by Susan BuchananThe M/V Aiviq icebreaker, contracted by Shell Oil to support drilling inAlaska?s Chukchi Sea, is scheduled to be completed by Louisiana-based EdisonChouest Offshore in early 2012. The ves- sel, ordered in July 2009, is on track forApril 1, 2012, delivery in Galliano, La., and will then head north, according toShell Oil spokesman Curtis Smith. The $200m Aiviq is the largest vessel ever built by Chouest, and will be among the most advanced and powerful, non- military icebreakers on the waters. Lon- nie Thibodeaux, Chouest spokesman, said the vessel's hull was scheduled to leave the company's North American Shipbuilding yard in Larose, La. on Dec. 20 for its LaShip yard in Houma, wherethe bridge is being built for final assem- bly. The Aiviq will travel though the Panama Canal to Alaska this spring. In order for a ship to be ?ice class,? the hull must be thick, and extra girders, beams and bulkheads are needed for structural integrity. The Aiviq is designed to American Bureau of Shipping A3 ca- pabilities to operate in frigid, minus-40-degree Fahrenheit temperatures, and can slash through a meter of ice with 20 cen-timeters of snow at 5 knots, Smith said. Crafted specially for harsh winter condi-tions, the ship can also work in Alaska the rest of the year. The vessel is being built to Interna- tional Maritime Organization's Polar Code 3, and measures 111.8 m long, witha 22-m beam and 22-m draft. ?It has hy- brid generators, noise-reduction equip-ment, and meets or exceeds the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Tier 4 emission standards,? Smith said. The Aiviq can hold thousands of barrels of oil. And because it will be stationed far from medical facilities, the vessel will have a hospital on board. Building the icebreaker has kept more than 600 workers busy in south Louisiana, helping a region hit hard by an offshore drilling moratorium in the sum- mer and fall of 2010, following the BP spill. And the Aiviq is expected to create over 100 jobs in Alaska, according to Shell.?Like other vessels in the Chouest fleet, we designed the Aiviq, built it and will operate it,? Thibodeaux said. ?We will crew the Aiviq, and personnel from Shell will be on the vessel too.? The icebreaker can accommodate 65 staff in cruise-ship- like quarters. While South Louisiana, which seldomsees snow, may be an unlikely place to produce icebreakers, Thibodeaux said ?we built the Nanuq ice-class supply ves- sel for Shell in 2007 and have also built two icebreakers for the National Science Foundation.? The Nanuq was outfitted with oil-spill-response capabilities wellbefore the 2010 Macondo spill in theGulf, he noted. The Aiviq is designed to work in tandem with the Nanuq. Thibodeaux explained that Aiviq means walrus in the Inupiaq language, and was named by a 12-year-old girl in Nuiqsut, Alaska in a contest sponsored by Shell.Prior to that, the Nanuq, meaning polarbear in Inupiaq, was named by residents of the village of Kaktovik. The Aiviq is designed with the habits of Chouest To Deliver Icebreaker To Shell (Photo Courtesy Shell) NEWSPROJECT UPDATE Though located in ?snow-less? Louisiana, ECO has good experience building ice-class vessels, including Nanuq (pictured below) ice-class supply vessel for Shell in 2007 and two icebreakers for the National Science Foundation. MR Jan.12 # 1 (1-9):MR Template 1/9/2012 11:35 AM Page 8