ROSGEO has started renovation and commissioning of the engineering and geological drilling vessel Bavenit. Works were started in December 2017 and will be completed in May 2018.

The vessel was built upon the P-2790 project, it belongs to the DYNPOS-2 class and the Arc4 ice class. The vessel is unique, it has no analogs in Russia. By the end of the upgrading it will be one of the most technically equipped geotechnical vessels in the world. It will be able to drill parametric and exploratory wells to a depth of up to 500 m at sea depths of up to 500 m, drill engineering and geological wells to a depth of up to 400 m at the water depth of up to 1100 m, perform geotechnical studies of soils in wells at depths of up to 1,800 m, study the soil section and its parameters with the help of the outboard devices to a depth of up to 40 meters at the depth of water of up to 2,500 meters, and also to sample bottom soils at unlimited depth of the sea.

For drilling and geotechnical operations, the vessel is equipped with a drilling rig with a height of 26 m and a lifting capacity of up to 80 tons, a 4.5x4.5 m drilling moonpool, an active heave compensator up to 7 m, a dynamic positioning system KONGSBERG SDP-21, which automatically keeps the vessel on study point or makes it move with the specified parameters when performing various types of work.

At the time being, repairs and upgrades of shipboard, geotechnical and drilling equipment are being carried out.

The work of the vessel on the Arctic shelf of the Russian Federation is planned for the autumn-summer season of 2018. Also, negotiations are currently underway to use it in 2019.

The vessel will not only be able to participate in the projects of the Russian subsoil users such as PJSC Gazprom, PJSC NK Rosneft, PJSC Novatek and PJSC Lukoil, but will also help to confirm the location of the outer border of the continental shelf of the Russian Federation in the Arctic Ocean. Also, the possibility of its engagement into engineering-geological and geocryological mapping of the Russian shelf of the Arctic is being discussed.

Today, modernization of equipment and machinery, including the fleet, is one of the main priorities of ROSGEO.