[6] Fennica is classified by Det Norske Veritas with a class notation 1A1 POLAR-10 Icebreaker Tug Supply Vessel SF HELDK EPR E0 DYNPOS-AUTR.
[10] The aforementioned design with the maximum breadth in the foreship and a narrower hull aftship, provides the multipurpose vessel also good seakeeping characteristics.
At the midship and aft ship area there are also exceptionally wide bilge shelves as an integral part of the hull, to further dampen the rolling.
Since Fennica acts as an escort icebreaker during the winter season, she is also equipped with a Aquamaster-Rauma anchor handling and towing winch, and stern notch for assisting merchant ships.
[6] In late 2011 they were also retrofitted with catalytic converters and urea spraying systems to reduce NOx emissions in order to meet the strict EPA requirements.
As a result, the existing icebreakers had an effective operational time of only three to five months per year and spent the summer season moored at Katajanokka in Helsinki.
A multipurpose application of the new icebreakers would thus result in a better utilization of the vessels and, assuming they were chartered by a commercial third party during the summer, improve the economics of the state-owned fleet.
The ship, delivered in 1998 as Botnica, was slightly smaller than the previous Finnish multipurpose icebreakers and had several other differences, such as twelve Caterpillar high-speed diesel engines instead of medium-speed units and Azipod electric azimuth thrusters instead of the ducted Z-drive Aquamasters.
When Fennica entered service in 1993, it was agreed that the multipurpose icebreakers would be chartered for offshore duties about 180 days per year during the ice-free season.
[25] In 2002, Halliburton Offshore and DSND combined their resources and the exclusive charter of the multipurpose icebreakers was transferred to the new company, Subsea 7, that held it until 2004.
Later a separate company, GDV Maritime AS, was established together with Norwegian partners and handled the global marketing of the Finnish multipurpose icebreakers until 2008.
[29] In November 2011, Shell Oil Company signed a three-year contract with Arctia Offshore and chartered the Finnish multipurpose icebreakers Fennica and Nordica to serve as primary ice management vessels in the Chukchi Sea during the summer seasons.
The primary purpose of Fennica would be to protect the drillship Noble Discoverer by steering large ice floes so that they don't endanger the drilling operation.
[29][30] The decision to charter the Finnish icebreakers to support Arctic offshore drilling has been widely criticized due potential environmental damage in case of oil spill.
On 16 March 2012, some 52 Greenpeace activists from five different countries boarded Fennica and Nordica at Arctech Helsinki Shipyard to protest Shell's drilling operations in Alaska.
On 2 July 2015, while underway to the Chukchi Sea to support Shell's drilling operations, Fennica struck an uncharted rock that created a 3 feet (1 m) long and about two inches (5 cm) wide fracture in the Port No.
When the crew noticed that water level in the tank was rising, the icebreaker turned back and returned to Dutch Harbor for investigations.
[37] This was not expected to delay Shell's plans to begin drilling in Northern Alaska as the capping stack, a critical piece of safety equipment carried by Fennica for shutting off the flow of fluids from an oil well in case of a blowout, would not be needed until later when the drill reaches depths where oil and gas are expected to be found.
[40] On 9 July, the United States Coast Guard announced that a boat from NOAAS Fairweather had followed Fennica's track from Dutch Harbor and discovered a previously uncharted rocky shoal where the sea depth was shallower than what was indicated in the nautical charts and about 9 inches (23 cm) less than the draft of the icebreaker.
[41][42][43] The incident ended the co-operation between DSND and the Finnish Maritime Administration and left many people suspicious about the profitability of the multipurpose icebreakers.
In addition, the head of the Government Ownership Steering Department, Pekka Timonen, had threatened two top executives of the company with firing unless they complied with the request.
[52][53][54] In open water, the multipurpose icebreakers have not been competitive against purpose-built offshore vessels due to their higher fuel consumption.
[56][57] Unable to compete commercially against purpose-built offshore vessels, the multipurpose icebreakers would be the last ones to be hired unless they were offered at significantly reduced day rates.
[60] Fennica and the other Finnish multipurpose icebreakers are sometimes jokingly referred to as "Moulinex ships" after the French brand of household appliances and kitchen equipment.