On 29 November 2019, the icebreaking supply vessel (IBSV) Gennadiy Nevelskoy responded to a distress call from a fishing boat whilst en route from the Lun-A offshore platform off Sakhalin Island to the Port of Kholmsk.
According to the press release of Sovcomflot, the IBSV vessel and her crew, under the command of Captain Vladimir Erastov, responded immediately and headed towards the stranded vessel. Following a rescue operation, three fishermen were saved from their partially sunk boat. They were provided with warm clothes, hot drinks, food, accommodation and a medical examination.
The same evening, the rescued fishermen were taken to the Port the Kholmsk and handed over to the port authorities. Subsequently, Gennadiy Nevelskoy resumed her usual duties.
The management of SCF Group and the technical managers of the ship, SCF Management Services (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk), expressed their gratitude to the shipmaster and the IBSV’s crew for their efforts in saving lives.
Gennadiy Nevelskoy was built in 2017 to the highest international maritime safety standards and is designed to operate in the most challenging climatic conditions. The vessel delivers supplies to the offshore platforms of the Sakhalin-2 project in the Sea of Okhotsk and performs standby duty nearby.
The IBSV is named after Admiral Gennadiy Nevelskoy, a prominent explorer of Russia’s Far East.
Sovcomflot (SCF Group) is one of the world's leading energy shipping companies, specialising in the transportation of crude oil, petroleum products, and liquefied gas, as well as the servicing of offshore oil and gas exploration and production. The company’s fleet includes 147 vessels with a total deadweight of over 12.8 million tonnes. More than 80 vessels have an ice class.
Sovcomflot is involved in servicing large oil and gas projects in Russia and around the world: Sakhalin-1; Sakhalin-2; Varandey; Prirazlomnoye; Novy Port; Yamal LNG, and Tangguh (Indonesia). The company is headquartered in Saint Petersburg, with offices in Moscow, Novorossiysk, Murmansk, Vladivostok, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, London, Limassol, and Dubai.
The crews of SCF vessels have assisted seafarers in distress on numerous occasions. This has included fully-fledged rescue operations, carried out independently. In 2007, the crew of the LPG carrier SCF Tomsk rescued 41 people in the Atlantic Ocean 500 miles from the Cape Verde Islands. The rescued seafarers had been stranded in the open sea for over two weeks, staying without either food or drinking water for several days by the moment the rescue operation began. In 2008, the crew of the tanker SCF Khibiny rescued 13 people from an Indonesian vessel sunk in the Straits of Malacca. In 2010, the tugboat Dobrynya took part in the rescue of nine fishermen swept into the Gulf of Finland on a detached ice floe. In 2016, the crew of the tanker Leonid Loza rescued 10 people in the Atlantic close to the west coast of Africa.