PAO Sovcomflot (“SCF Group”), Rosneft, the State Transport Leasing Company (STLC), and Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex have signed a set of agreements that entail the construction of five Aframax tankers to enable export shipments of crude oil and oil products.
The 114,000 dwt vessels will be built by Zvezda jointly with Hyundai Heavy Industries (Republic of Korea), the world’s leader in Aframax construction and the technology partner of Zvezda. The new vessels are due to enter service beginning from 2021. The tankers will have an ice class of 1A/1B, sufficient to ensure safe year-round operations in regions with challenging ice conditions, including the Baltic Sea and subarctic seas.
SCF will operate all the tankers, first supervising their construction and then providing a range of services to ensure the effective and safe management of these vessels, including the recruitment of high-skilled crews and their management.
This series of tankers heralds a new generation of merchant vessels with higher environmental safety standards. They are purpose-designed to use LNG (liquefied natural gas) as their primary fuel, which significantly reduces their environmental impact. The vessels were designed to comply with most stringent international Sulphur Oxide (SOx), Nitrogen Oxide (NOx), and Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emission standards, governed by new IMO regulations that are scheduled to come into effect from 2020 and will apply, amongst other areas, to the Baltic and North Seas.
The technical specification of the new tankers was designed by SCF’s specialists, with the close involvement of the Far Eastern Shipbuilding and Ship Repair Centre (FESRC). When designing the tankers, SCF’s team applied the Group’s vast experience of operating large-capacity tankers under adverse climatic and ice conditions. (For reference: For more than 15 years SCF Aframax tankers have been successfully shipping crude oil in the Baltic Sea and subarctic seas).
