SCF’s Tanker Carries Its First Crude Oil to Murmansk Port

The 2016-built Arctic shuttle tanker Shturman Albanov, owned by Russian shipping major Sovcomflot, delivered its first shipment of crude oil produced at Gazprom Neft’s Novy Port field to the port of Murmansk on September 16.

The cargo, comprising 34,000 tonnes of crude oil, was loaded at the Arctic Gate terminal, near Cape Kamenny in the Gulf of Ob, earlier last week.

Shturman Albanov is the lead ship in a series of Arctic shuttle tankers ordered by Sovcomflot Group under a long-term contract with Gazprom Neft.

Featuring around 42,000 dwt, a length of 249 meters and a width of 34 meters, the vessels are designed to carry crude oil from the Yamal peninsula to the port of Murmansk all year-round.

The Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (RS) assigned the vessels an ice class Arc7, while the construction of three vessels of the series was financed by Sberbank CIB under a 14-year USD 340 million credit facility agreement signed in December 2015.

The Russia-flagged Shturman Albanov joined SCF’s fleet on 16 August, after which it sailed to its loading point in the Gulf of Ob.

“The successful start to the operation of SCF’s Arctic shuttle tanker Shturman Albanov is really a landmark event. In fact, Sovcomflot’s new tankers will enable the year-round transportation of oil from the estuary of Ob for the first time in history,” Sergey Frank, Chairman and CEO of PAO Sovcomflot, said.