Sovcomflot Group News

On September 24, 2019, the Board of Directors of PAO Sovcomflot elected Sergey Frank as its new Chairman. Igor Tonkovidov was appointed as the company's new Chief Executive Officer. Both appointments are with immediate effect.The meeting was attended by Maxim Akimov, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, who noted in his address: "Through consistent implementation of Sovcomflot's Strategies 2005-2011 and 2012-2018, the company has transformed itself into a global leader in energy shipping and offshore services. Over the past 15 years, Sovcomflot fleet has grown more than threefold.

On December 28, 2018, Sovcomflot (SCF Group) placed an order at Zvezda shipbuilding complex for construction of three new generation product carriers that use cleaner-burning LNG fuel as their primary fuel.Three MR-class vessels will have a deadweight (DWT) of 51,000 tonnes each. They will transport petroleum products and gas condensate and will be chartered to Novatek under long-term time charter agreements. Each tanker will have an ice class of 1B, enabling safe operations in areas with challenging ice conditions, including the Baltic.Using LNG fuel enables to significantly reduce emissions.

Russia’s largest shipping company Sovcomflot Group (SCF Group) informed that the SCF Far East Tall Ships Regatta 2018 was officially launched. This marks the first time that Russia’s Far East will host an international tall ship race.The principal competition begins on 1 September with the race from Yeosu (South Korea) to Vladivostok, with over 20 vessels from Russia, Japan, China, South Korea, Indonesia, and other countries competing to be the first to cover the distance of over 500 nautical miles. The ships are expected to arrive to Vladivostok on 8-9 September 2018. The regatta events in Vladivostok will coincide with the 4th Eastern Economic Forum (EEF).The regattas are traditionally held under the patronage of the heads of the participating states.PAO Sovcomflot (SCF)…

The liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier Pskov completed loading at the Port of Sabetta (YNAD), with the first cargo of LNG produced from the second high-tech production line at the Yamal LNG plant.August 08 marked the launch of the second production train at Yamal LNG, which happened six months ahead of schedule.Pskov is a state-of-the-art Atlanticmax LNG carrier with a cargo capacity of 170,000 cubic metres. She was built to order for Sovcomflot Group in 2014, to transport LNG under a long-term time charter agreement with Gazprom. The vessel is currently sub-chartered to Yamal LNG and transports LNG from the Yamal Peninsula to West…

PAO Sovcomflot (SCF Group) continued to increase the share of its fleet serving long-term energy projects over the first quarter ending 31 March 2018. This helped offset the negative impact of the protracted decline in freight rates that continues within the conventional tanker freight markets. Nikolay Kolesnikov, Executive Vice President and CFO of PAO Sovcomflot, commented on the quarter's results: "In the first quarter of 2018, conditions within the global conventional tanker market remained extremely challenging. The significant imbalance between tonnage supply and demand in the crude oil and petroleum products shipping segments heaped more downward pressure on freight rates, which had reached records lows in some sectors having fallen by almost 50 per cent year-on-year.

Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) has advised ING Bank (“ING”), as agent, security trustee and the syndicate of lenders on the US$252m financing of the world’s first ever LNG-powered aframax tankers for leading Russian shipowner Sovcomflot Group (“SCF”). The six 114,000dwt, ice-class vessels are being built by Hyundai Samho, with two of the vessels to operate under time charter to Shell for up to ten years. Shell will also provide LNG fuel for all six tankers across north-west Europe and the Baltic. In addition to ING, international lenders ABN Amro, BNP Paribas, Citibank, KfW IPEX-Bank and Société Générale were part of the financing syndicate for the facility.

The largest bank in Russia Sberbank and shipping company Sovcomflot have signed a new USD 106 million project financing agreement, with a term of up to 14 years. The funds will finance the construction of a high ice class Arctic shuttle tanker (Arc7) for the Novy Port project, under a long-term agreement with Gazprom Neft. This is the third major transaction of its kind between Sberbank and Sovcomflot. The first joint project between the companies was in 2015, to finance the construction of three Arctic shuttle tankers to transport crude oil from the Novy Port field. That agreement set an important precedent for Russian domestic credit institutions, and was named “Deal of the Year” by the international publication Marine Money.

A ceremony raising the flag of the Russian Federation and naming a new multifunctional icebreaking platform supply vessel, Yevgeny Primakov, took place on February 3, 2018 in Saint Petersburg. The vessel was built by Arctech Helsinki Shipyard, a subsidiary of the United Shipbuilding Corporation; technical supervision was carried out by the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (RS), which assigned the vessel a high ice class – Icebreaker6. Yevgeny Primakov’s design and construction…

A meeting of the Arctic Economic Council (AEC) was held in Saint Petersburg on the premises of SCF Arctic, a subsidiary of Sovcomflot Group (PAO Sovcomflot), on 7-8 February 2017. The meeting was attended by business community representatives from Russia, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Canada, and the USA, as well as several organizations of indigenous peoples of the Arctic: Gwich'in Council International, Aleut International Association, Arctic Athabaskan Council, Inuit Circumpolar Association, and RAIPON (Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North). This event was the first ever meeting held by the AEC in the Russian Federation.

On January 19-20, 2017 Novorossiysk Shipping Company (Novoship), a subsidiary of SCF Group, hosted special events dedicated to the company’s 50th anniversary. The anniversary ceremony was attended by Victor Olersky, Deputy Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation, Head of the Federal Marine and River Transport Agency (Rosmorrechflot); Alexey Kondratenko, Member of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation; Evgeniy Moskvichev, Chairman of the State Duma Transport Committee; Alexey Klyavin, President of the Russian Chamber of Shipping; Yury Sukhorukov, President of the Seafarers’ Union of Russia, and Sergey Frank, President & CEO of PAO Sovcomflot. Novorossiysk Shipping Company was officially established on January 20, 1967.

Russia’s PAO Sovcomflot (SCF Group) subsidiary SCF Tankers Ltd. has won an auction for nine arctic-going tankers that belonged Primorsk International Shipping Ltd. (PRISCO), who filed for chapter 11 protection in January 2016. The purchase deal is worth $215 million, and the auction results have been approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, which is handling PRISCO’s bankruptcy case. SCF Tankers outbid Denmark’s Hafnia Tankers Ltd., who submitted a $208 million offer, the Wall Street Journal reported. The nine ships comprise one Aframax crude oil tanker: Zaliv Amerika (104,535-dwt); three LR2 oil product tankers: Zaliv Amurskiy (104…

Sovcomflot Group and Sberbank CIB  have signed a 14-year $340 million credit facility agreement to finance the construction of three Arctic shuttle tankers for the Novy Port project  (project operator: Gazprom eft). Novy Port is one of the largest oil and gas condensate deposits on the Yamal peninsula in Russia. The vessels will serve as part of project infrastructure designed to enable year-round shipment of crude oil from an offshore loading terminal in the Gulf of Ob. The commercial production from the field will start in 2016. The transaction involves Sberbank Europe AG, a subsidiary bank of PJSC Sberbank. Commenting on the transaction…

The companies have signed a number of agreements for construction and long-term operation of the vessels for Sakhalin-2 project. At an official ceremony in Moscow, Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd. (Sakhalin Energy) and Sovcomflot Shelf (SCF Shelf) on behalf of Sovcomflot Group have signed a contract for the construction and long-term operation of the multifunctional icebreaking supply vessel for Sakhalin-2 offshore platforms. Operations under the contract will continue for 20 years. The vessel will be used as year round personnel carrier and also as supply vessel for offshore platforms in the Sea of Okhotsk. In case of emergency, the vessel will be deployed for personnel evacuation and oil spill response.

Deliveries of new gas tankers have created a glut that is threatening to tip some operators into losses, just as other shipping markets emerge from their worst downturn in decades. The liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker market was until recently the only bright spot in an otherwise depressed freight industry. A global surge in the demand for gas, led by Japan in 2011, boosted trade, tied vessels to longer routes and drove rental rates to record highs. But the 119 new carriers ordered from 2011 will have expanded the fleet by over 30 percent by end-2017.

Novoship tankship 'NS Columbus' the first Sovcomflot Group vessel to receive an IMO 2006 Maritime Labour Convention certificate. The Aframax crude oil tanker NS Columbus underwent an inspection by the Maritime Authority and was declared to be in full compliance with the regulations of the convention. The document granted will be valid until 20 February, 2018. This certificate confirms that the company-operator follows best practices in the observance of sailors’ rights, the provision of proper living and working conditions, and the granting of social safeguards.

Calgon Carbon Corporation's wholly owned subsidiary, Hyde Marine, Inc., has announced  that its Hyde Guardian  Ballast Water Treatment System (BWTS) HG600 unit will be installed on the largest icebreaker in the FSUE "Rosmorport" fleet – the 22600 project, a 25 mWt-power diesel vessel. The contract is the first awarded to Hyde Marine in Russia for new vessel construction. The 22600 project will be delivered in 2015 and installed at Baltic Shipyard, one of the leading enterprises in the Russian shipbuilding industry. The installation will enable "Rosmorport" to meet ballast water treatment regulations associated with the Ballast Water Convention…

OAO Sovcomflot opens its Saint-Petersburg captain & senior officer training & engineering centre (TEC) for Arctic offshore operations. The opening of the modern training centre in Russia’s maritime capital marks an important milestone in the implementation of the SCF development strategy which provides for an expansion of company participation in oil & gas projects in the Arctic and sub-Arctic. Sovcomflot vessels provide year-round support for large offshore energy projects, such as: Sakhalin-I, Sakhalin-II, Varandey, Tangguh, Escobar, and Peregrino.

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., has won three orders worth a combined $600m to build six ships for three companies in Russia, Africa and Europe. Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering will construct two crude oil carriers for Sovcomflot Group, Russia's largest shipping company, two tankers for a company in Liberia and two car carriers for Leif Hoegh & Co., a Norwegian shipper. The ships will be delivered to the companies by January 2011. Source: Business in Asia Today

Sovcomflot Group and German bank HSH Nordbank AG have signed a Loan Agreement of $434m. HSH Nordbank is mandated lead arranger and is providing senior debt for the transaction. The signing ceremony attended by Sergey Frank, President and CEO of Sovcomflot and Hans Berger, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Managing Directors of HSH Nordbank, took place in Hamburg. The purpose of the Loan Facility with final maturity date in 2021 is to provide the financing of six vessels, i.e. three unique Arctic tankers to be deployed for long-term operation in Barents Sea, as well as three product-carriers. ING Bank N.V. has been working as structuring bank and financial advisor for Sovcomflot under above Loan Facility. Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale is participating in the transaction as co-lender.