SCF, Shell Ink Charter Deals for LNG-Fuelled Aframax Duo

Russia’s shipping company PAO Sovcomflot has signed time-charter agreements with oil major Shell for two dual-fuelled Aframax tankers.

The tanker duo will be on time charter to Shell for up to 10 years, with a minimum commitment of five years.

The vessels are part of a series of six SCF tankers currently under construction at South Korean yard Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries (HSHI) and due for delivery between the third quarter of 2018 and the first quarter of 2019.

This “Green Funnel” series of ice class 114,000 dwt LNG-powered Aframax tankers will operate within Shell’s extensive global freight trading network. Each tanker will have an ice class 1A hull, enabling year-round export operations from the Baltic.

The Aframaxes will also use Shell’s specialised LNG bunker vessels, such as the Cardissa, for fuelling in North West Europe. Furthermore, the company will provide supply points across North West Europe and the Baltic as it expands its LNG fuelling infrastructure.

The vessels’ main engines, auxiliaries, and boilers will be dual fuel, capable of using LNG, and the vessels will also be fitted with Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) technology to comply with Tier III regulations governing NOx emissions when in gasoil fuel mode.

The contracts, signed on February 20 during International Petroleum Week in London, represent the next step in an extensive top-to-bottom collaboration between SCF Group and Shell over the last three years around reducing the environmental footprint of the tanker industry, in particular, by fuelling tankers with LNG.

The new contracts follow the parties’ LNG fuel supply agreement concluded in 2017, which pioneered the expansion of Marine LNG fuelling into the tanker industry and, in general, for vessels not tied to fixed routes or set timetables.

“Together, SCF Group and Shell are leading the development and adoption of LNG as a fuel within the tanker industry, committed to significantly reducing the environmental footprint of energy shipping,” Evgeny Ambrosov, Senior Executive Vice-President of SCF Group, said.