Russia’s United Shipbuilding Company (USC) and S. Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME) are expected to start their joint large-capacity dockyard project in Primorsky Region’s Bolshoi Kamen in January 2010, REGNUM reports, citing a source in the Primorsky regional administration.

As Marchmont reported earlier, the South Korean company intends to invest $200m in the project.

According to regional officials, the prospective dockyard will build tankers, gas-carriers, drill ships, and ocean-going LNG (liquefied natural gas) plants.

Under plans, phase 1 of the dockyard will be launched in 2012, with the entire project scheduled for completion by 2020.

The project is reportedly expected to create more than 3,000 new jobs in the region.

Russia’s oil and gas majors, including Rosneft, Transneft, Gazprom and Sovkomflot, are already among the future dockyard’s customers, REGNUM says.