Crew of SCF Group’s tanker Leonid Loza rescue 10 fishermen from Atlantic
SCF says crew of SCF Group’s tanker Leonid Loza rescue 10 fishermen from Atlantic.
On 7 November 2016, SCF Group’s tanker Leonid Loza received a distress call from the fishing trawler Baraka, when proceeding along the west coast of Africa for loading.
Captain of the Russian tanker Vladimir Akopdzhanov and his crew immediately responded to the request for assistance. As a result of the rescue, all 10 foreign fishermen were safely embarked aboard the tanker, provided with hot meals, clothes, and accommodation.
On 8 November the rescued seafarers, mostly citizens of the Republic of Sierra Leone, were taken to the port of Freetown and handed over to the local authorities. The SCF tanker then resumed her voyage to her port of loading.
The management of SCF Group and the technical manager of the ship – SCF Management Services (Novorossiysk) – heartily congratulated the captain and crew of the tanker on their successful rescue operation.
The Suezmax tanker Leonid Loza was built in 2011. Her deadweight is 156,600 tonnes, length – 274 m and width – 48 m.
The tanker is named after Leonid Ivanovich Loza (1940-2009), Head of the Sakhalin Shipping Company (1985-1987). For nearly fifteen years (1987-2001), Leonid Ivanovich successfully managed one of the country’s largest tanker shipping companies – Novorossiysk Shipping Company – and made an enormous contribution to the preservation and extension of the company’s great maritime traditions. L.I. Loza received numerous state and government awards for his contribution to the development of the national merchant marine fleet.
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 153 vessels with a total deadweight of approximately 13 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 has the ability to meet the most demanding customer requirements, providing effective transportation for oil & gas companies.
The crews of SCF ships have assisted seafarers in distress on many occasions. This has included fully-fledged rescue operations, carried out using their own resources. In 2007, for example, the crew of the LPG tanker SCF Tomsk rescued 41 people from the Atlantic Ocean, 500 miles north-west of the Cape Verde Islands. Those rescued by these Russian sailors had been in the open ocean for two weeks and had consumed no water or food for several days when the rescue operation began. In 2008, the crew of the tanker SCF Khibiny rescued 13 people from a sunken Indonesian vessel in the Straits of Malacca. In late 2010, the tugboat Dobrynya owned by Sovcomflot Group took part in the rescue of nine fishermen nearby Kotlin Island (Gulf of Finland), who had been swept into the sea on from an ice floe detached from the coast.
