Akademik Aleksandr Karpinsky

R/V Akademik Aleksandr Karpinsky in 2019 at Admiralty Bay, King George Island, Antarctica.]]
History
Russia
Owner	P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology.
Operator	Rosgeo
Port of registry	Russia
Ordered	Unknown
Builder	Mykolaiv, Ukraine
Laid down	Unknown
Launched	28 December 1980
In service	1984
Refit	1987
Homeport	Sankt Petersburg, Russia
Identification	IMO number: 7811018 MMSI number: 273411400 Callsign: UFJI
Status	in active service
General characteristics
Displacement	6,240 tons
Length	122.2 m (400 ft 11 in)
Beam	17.82 m (58 ft 6 in)
Height	10.4 m (34 ft 1 in)
Draft	5.89 m (19 ft 4 in)
Installed power	(4) diesel engines, 5,840 hp (4,350 kW) each
Speed	12.5 knots (23.2 km/h; 14.4 mph) max
Range	20,000 km (12,000 mi)
Endurance	303 days
Boats & landing craft carried	Mir DSVs
Complement	~90

RV Akademik Alexandr Karpinsky is a Russian Research vessel of Russian state Geological Exploration Holding Rosgeo. The a Antarctic research vessel is capabel of seismic and other geological research on the seabed. Homeport is Saint-Petersburg.

In 2024 the US government has imposed sanctions on Akademik Alexandr Karpinsky. The vessel has led extensive oil and gas surveys in Antarctica’s Southern Ocean. The Karpinsky sails under the flag of the Russian Antarctic Expedition (RAE), a continuously operating expedition of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute of the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring of Russia.

Ship

The vessel of Project 12883M was build in 1984 in Mykolaiv, Ukraine. In 2014 the shio was reconstractined in Tallinn, Estonia.

History

Stationened in the Baltic Sea the Akademik Alexander Karpinsky is as noted on the 1959 Antarctic Treaty’s seasonal shipping database, registered to sail to West Antarctica’s Amundsen and East Antarctica’s Ross seas for “marine geological-geophysical studies”.A 1998 amendment to the 55-nation Antarctic Treaty, to which Russia had signed, prohibits all mineral explorations and extractions in the region. Akademik Kapinsky had been in the Southern Ocean on an anual term, and has produced most of these investigations via Cape Town since. Russia is doing mineral exploration under the guise of scientific research, which is permissible under the Antarctic treaty.

In 2020, Rosgeo reported that Alexander Karpinsky had completed a comprehensive sub-surface geological survey, mapping oil and gas bearing prospects on the Antarctic ice shelves. The study was part of the 65th Russian Antarctic expedition (RAE). At the time, the exploration covered the southeastern part of the Riiser-Larsen Sea off the coast of Queen Maud Land, which is claimed by Norway.

According to the US Department of State, the Karpinsky was sanctioned in February 2024 to mark two years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 and the death of the opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a Siberian prison. It´s sister vessel, the RV Professor Logachev has also been sanctioned. US citizens and companies are banned from conducting commercial transactions with the Karpinsky’s owners Rosgeo and the vessel will be prevented from calling at US ports.