On 15 June 2017, the naming ceremony took place for a new multifunctional icebreaking standby vessel (IBSBV) built to order for SCF Group. The vessel was constructed at the Arctech Helsinki Shipyard and was commissioned under a long-term agreement between SCF and Sakhalin Energy for the Sakhalin-2 project, SCF Group says in a press release.
Stepan Makarov will have Saint Petersburg as her home port and is registered under the Russian flag. The main tasks of the vessel are to ensure the safety of the personnel on the offshore oil and gas production platforms of Sakhalin Energy in the Sea of Okhotsk, to respond to emergency spills at sea and to support the company's operations within its technical capabilities.
She is the first of three IBSBVs commissioned by SCF Group for operations at the Sakhalin-2 project. The fourth ship commissioned by SCF for this project, an icebreaking supply vessel Gennadiy Nevelskoy, has already been delivered and arrived at Sakhalin Island in April 2017. The agreement between SCF Group and Sakhalin Energy, signed in 2014, involves the operation of all four vessels for twenty years under the Sakhalin-2 project.
The Russian Maritime Register of Shipping, which is providing technical supervision during the construction of all four vessels, has assigned an ice class of Icebreaker6 to the new vessel.
The vessel was named after Stepan Makarov, a Russian admiral and a polar explorer who played a prominent role in establishing the Russian icebreaker fleet. He introduced the idea to use icebreakers for Arctic Ocean exploration, and was directly involved in the design and construction of Yermak, the world’s first Arctic icebreaker (1898).
The vessel naming ceremony was attended by: Vladimir Emelianov, Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer of SCF Group; Vadim Panin, Logistics Manager of Sakhalin Energy; and Dmitry Pryakhin, Director of Sales & Marketing Department, Civil Shipbuilding, United Shipbuilding Corporation.
The ceremony was also attended by representatives of Russia’s State University of Maritime and Inland Shipping (SUMIS) named after Admiral Makarov. The vessel’s godmother is Elena Smyaglikova, director of the Arctic Maritime Institute, a branch of SUMIS. Also present at the ceremony was Ivan Golovanov, a fifth-year Electric Engineering Cadet at SUMIS.
“SCF Group continues to implement its current strategy and steadily expands the involvement of its fleet in long-term energy projects, Sakhalin-2 taking a prominent place among them. Servicing offshore oil and gas fields, especially in regions with harsh environments, is one of the priority segments for SCF Group. Today, SCF is already the world's biggest operator of offshore supply and standby vessels. Adding Stepan Makarov to our fleet enables us to strengthen SCF’s leadership, and take a further step forward in reaching the company’s strategic objectives. I express my gratitude to Sakhalin Energy, our esteemed partner, for their long-standing support and confidence which allows us to achieve sustainable results, especially in the regions where the professionalism and experience of our crews are particularly important.”
“It is quite exciting to know that for the next twenty years, these state-of-the-art ice-class vessels will be working for Sakhalin-2 project and providing the best possible working environment to our crews. I am happy to state that the building of this vessel, commenced back in 2015, has been completed successfully and with full compliance with all safety requirements.”
Today, as part of the Sakhalin-2 project, SCF Group already operates: four platform supply vessels (Gennadiy Nevelskoy, SCF Endeavour, SCF Endurance, and SCF Enterprise); three Aframax crude oil shuttle tankers (Zaliv Aniva, Sakhalin Island, and Governor Farkhutdinov), and two LNG carriers (Grand Aniva and Grand Elena), both operated together with Japan’s NYK Line. All the vessels are operated under long-term time charter contracts with Sakhalin Energy.
PAO Sovcomflot (SCF Group) is one of the world's leading shipping companies, specialising in the transportation of crude oil, petroleum products, and liquefied gas, as well as servicing offshore upstream oil and gas installations and equipment. The Group’s fleet comprises 148 vessels with a total deadweight of over 13.1 million tonnes. The company is registered in St. Petersburg with offices in Moscow, Novorossiysk, Murmansk, Vladivostok, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, London, Limassol, and Dubai.
The Group offers a wide range of vessels in the market segments most demanded by major Russian oil and gas companies. With its own technical development and unique approach to advanced technologies, Sovcomflot can meet the most demanding customer requirements, providing effective transportation for oil & gas companies.
Stepan Makarov (1849-1904) was a Russian admiral and a polar explorer. He introduced the idea to use powerful icebreakers to explore the Arctic Ocean, then designed the first-ever Arctic icebreaker Yermak, oversaw her construction and commanded her on two expeditions to the polar archipelagoes of Spitsbergen, Franz Josef Land, and Novaya Zemlya (1899, 1901). In 1886-1889, he circumnavigated the globe at the helm of the corvette Vityaz and carried out extensive oceanographic research that has won his recognition from the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 1895 he developed the Russian semaphore alphabet that is still in use. He was the only Russian naval commander who served at all four Russian fleet theatres: Baltic, Pacific, North, and Black Sea. One of the main Russian shipping universities, the State University of Maritime and Inland Shipping in Saint Petersburg, is named after Makarov, as well as a town on Sakhalin Island.