Sovcomflot Revenue Drops

Sovcomflot of Russia said its gross revenue declined by 6.7 per cent to USD 1,262.8 million in 2013.

Time charter equivalent (TCE) revenue, however, increased by 1.5 per cent to USD 872.6 million (2012: USD 859.4 million). Adjusted earnings before interest, tax and depreciation (EBITDA) were USD 382.1 million, a decline of 5.9 per cent on the previous period (2012: USD 406.1 million).

Sovcomflot made a loss of USD 39.2 million for the year (2012: USD 32.9 million profit).

Gas Tankers

This business segment comprises 10 Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) and Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) carriers. At the 2013 year end, the gas tanker fleet comprised six LNG carriers (2012: six vessels) and four LPG carriers (2012: two vessels). Sovcomflot has an equity ownership position in four of these LNG carriers, operating under long-term contracts for the Sakhalin 2 and Tangguh projects. At the year end, the company had four LNG carriers on order for delivery by the first half of 2015.

Time Charter Equivalent (TCE) revenues for the period ended 31 December 2013, for vessels wholly owned by the company, increased by 11.1 per cent to USD 48.3 million (2012: USD 43.5 million).

During the year the high ice class LPG tankers Sibur Voronezh and Sibur Tobol entered service. They enable the year-round exportation of LPG from the port of Ust-Luga (Leningradsky Region), Russia. The vessels are part of an expanding collaboration with the Russian petrochemical holding company SIBUR.

In November 2013 the LNG carrier SCF Melampus was launched at the STX Offshore & Shipbuilding yard in South Korea. She is the first of two ice class gas carriers ordered by Sovcomflot, as part of a long-term agreement with Shell. SCF Melampus is due to be delivered at the end of 2014 and her sister ship is due to follow at the beginning of 2015.

Shortly after the period end, in January 2014, the company took delivery of the new state-of-the-art gas carrier Velikiy Novgorod, ordered by Sovcomflot for the transportation of LNG for Gazprom. The tri-fuelled Atlanticmax 170,200m³ tanker is one of the most sophisticated vessels in her class. The second ship of the series, Pskov, is due to be delivered in September, 2014. Both of these advanced design ice class Atlanticmax gas carriers (cargo capacity 170,000m³, Ice2) are being equipped for operations in low temperature conditions, which allows them to transport gas on a year-round basis from all existing LNG terminals to global markets.

Following the extension by Gas Natural of time-charters for the ice-class LNG carriers SCF Polar and SCF Arctic, both vessels continued to operate throughout the year and into 2014 being the world’s oldest LNG carriers in service. SCF Arctic was awarded eligibility under US Coast Guard’s prestigious Qualship21 programme, reflecting the strength of Sovcomflot’s operational and vessel maintenance standards.

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LNG World News Staff, March 19, 2014; Image: SCF