Shipments volume of PRISCO tanker fleet down 15% to 6.6 mln t in H1 09

In the first half of 2009, vessels of Primorsk Shipping Corporation (PRISCO Group) carried 6.6 million tonnes of liquid bulk cargo having covered some 224,000 miles. According to the company’s statistics, the volume of cargo transported by PRISCO vessels fell by almost 15%, year-on-year.

In the 6-month period of the current year some 70% (against 94% in the same period of the previous year) of total PRISCO shipments falls on 5 large-capacity tankers working for Sakhalin-1 and Sakhalin-2 projects. Those vessels chartered by Exon Neftegaz and Sakhalin Energy delivered 4.6 million tonnes of hydrocarbons from De-Castri and Prigorodnoye.

Other tankers of PRISCO transported oil and oil products between different foreign ports under long-term time-charter agreements, the company says.

In June, the company completed the first phase of its shipbuilding program. Last 6 months saw commissioning of four 100,000-dwt tankers and three 51,000-dwt tankers.

Currently the company operates 19 tankers with aggregate deadweight of 1.78 million tonnes. Average age of PRISCO tankers is slightly more than 2 years.