Sovcomflot OJSC (SCF Group) has taken the delivery of the second VLCC tanker (Very Large Crude Carrier) of Svet series, largest tankers of Russia’s commercial fleet with deadweight of 320,000 tonnes. According to the statement of the company’s press center, the tanker named SCF Shanghai was built at Bohai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry (Huludao, China) and was ordered by Sovcomflot OJSC for international transportation of large batches of crude. According to Sovcomflot press center, at present, it is not possible to build vessels of this class in Russia.
The tanker will be deployed under long-term time-charters on crude transportation signed with PetroChina International (subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation, CNPC). In December 2011, the company signed agreements providing for oil transportation by SCF fleet from the Middle East, West Africa and Venezuela to China.
The vessel fully complies with domestic and international safety requirements of Det Norske Veritas. It can be operated without any restrictions for the navigation area.
SCF is a world leader in the product carrier segment, as well as in the Aframax and Suezmax oil tanker segments. In line with the SCF development strategy, the construction of the two new tankers – Svet and SCF Shanghai – allows the company to break into a new large tonnage segment employing VLCC tankers (deadweight over 300,000 tonnes).
Novoship OJSC (part of SCF Group) takes charge of the tanker’ technical management and oversees its construction.
The captain of the tanker is Valery Rozhin. The crew is 22 persons.
The tanker’s technical parameters: length – 332 m, width – 60 m, depth – 30.05 m, deadweight – 320,000 t, draught – 22.6 m, operational speed – 16 knots.
Sovcomflot Group is Russia’s largest shipping company and one of the world’s leading shipping companies specializing in the maritime hydrocarbons transportation and supporting continental shelf exploration and oil & gas production. The SCF fleet includes 156 vessels with a combined deadweight of around 12 million tonnes. One third of them have a high ice class. The Group specialises in hydrocarbon transportation from regions with challenging ice conditions. Sovcomflot supports large-scale offshore energy projects in Russia and the rest of the world, including: Sakhalin-I, Sakhalin-II, Varandey, Prirazlomnoye, Tangguh, Escobar, and Peregrino.
The company is registered in Saint-Petersburg and has representative offices in Moscow, Novorossiysk, Murmansk, Vladivostok, London, Limassol, Madrid, Singapore and Dubai.
PetroChina is one of the largest business partners of SCF Group. Contracts for construction of VLCCs are a new stage in implementation of the long-term Strategic Partnership Agreement signed on November 22, 2010 in St. Petersburg by SCF Group and CNPC. In particular, the document sets forth considerable expansion of marine transportation of hydrocarbons by SCF vessels in the interests of the Chinese company.