Finnish pollution control vessel Louhi

Louhi (pennant number 999) is a Finnish multipurpose oil and chemical spill response vessel owned by the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), but manned and operated by the Finnish Navy. The ship, ordered in 2007, was built by Uki Workboat in Uusikaupunki, Finland, and entered service in May 2011.

History

Development and construction

The development of the new multipurpose vessel began on 25 May 2003 when the Ministry of Transport and Communications appointed a work group to investigate the technical requirements and economic aspects of building a new multipurpose icebreaker capable of combating oil and chemical spills around the year. The amount of oil transported in the Gulf of Finland had increased from a mere 15 million tons per year in the early 1990s to 69 million tons in 2003 and was expected to reach 130 million tons by 2010 after the new Russian oil terminals became operational, increasing the risk of a large spill in the vulnerable sea area considerably. While Finland already had a fleet of vessels with oil recovery equipment, none of them were capable of collecting spilled oil efficiently in heavy seas or in ice. The new multipurpose icebreaker would be designed to be capable of recovering spilled oil and chemicals in both open water and ice conditions, extinguishing shipboard fires and emergency towing of the largest merchant ships operating in the Gulf of Finland. The new vessel would also have sufficient icebreaking capability to assist oil tankers to the Kilpilahti oil refinery in Porvoo during winter. However, in the interim report, published on 30 September 2003, the work group noted that unless other work outside the winter months could be arranged and the new multipurpose icebreaker would have to spend the rest of the year in pollution control readiness, the operating expenses would be very high.

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