First VLCC built for Sovcomflot is floated out (photo)
The first of the two VLCCs (Very Large Crude Carriers) ordered by Sovcomflot Group (SCF) was launched on May 5, 2013. According to SCF press center, the Svet is to be put into operation in autumn 2013.
SCF is one of the world leaders in the segment of product carriers as well as Aframax and Suezmax tankers.
With the two new tankers, Svet and SCF Shanghai, the company enters the new segment of large capacity tankers (with deadweight exceeding 300,000 tonnes) in compliance with the current development strategy of SCF.
Both tankers 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.
Technical management of tankers including construction supervision is carried out by experts of Novoship OJSC (SCF Group). The construction of such vessels in Russia is not possible today.
The vessel is named after the first Russian oil tanker Svet built in 1885 to the order of Nobel Brothers for transportation of export oil and kerosene by the Black Sea from Baku. The vessel had the length of 89.5 m and breadth of 11.6 m, ship rig of 240 square m and maximum speed with sails of 7.5 knots. The crew consisted of 50 seafarers.
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.
