On 1 June 2020, whilst sailing from Singapore to Chittagong, the crew of Sovcomflot Group's tanker/product carrier NS Power sighted a makeshift raft drifting in the Andaman Sea with two people on it, Sovcomflot says in its press release.
The Master of NS Power, Vitaly Mikhailov, declared a ‘man overboard’ emergency, and the tanker immediately headed for the raft to render assistance. Both men aboard the raft were rescued and provided with water, dry clothes and hot meals. Following a medical examination, one of the men was found to be suffering from sunburn.
The Myanmar Rescue Coordination Centre was duly notified. The Centre confirmed the identities of the Myanmar citizens and requested they be taken to Preparis Island, where the men were handed over to the local authorities. The NS Power subsequently resumed her voyage.
The management of Sovcomflot Group and SCF Management Services (Novorossiysk) thanked the NS Power’s Master and crew for undertaking the rescue in such a professional manner.
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 production. The Group’s fleet includes 146 vessels with a total deadweight of 12.6 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 St. 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 that had 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 2014, the crew of the tanker SCF Krasnodar saved six yachtsmen who had become stranded on a life raft in the Atlantic off the coast of Brazil for several days. In 2016, the crew of the tanker Leonid Loza rescued ten people from a fishing trawler off the west coast of Africa. In March 2019, a crew of the tanker SCF Surgut rescued 12 people from a yacht caught in a storm in the Caribbean Sea. In November 2019, the crew of the supply vessel Gennadiy Nevelskoy rescued three fishermen in the Sea of Okhotsk. In February 2020, the crew of the tanker SСF Angara rescued seven fishermen in Gulf of Finland.