Sovcomflot Wins Rights to Carry Oil from Sakhalin-1 Fields
June 17, 2003-Moscow, Russia -- The Sovcomflot Open Joint Stock Company won a contract to carry crude oil in two 100,000-ton double hulled tankers in a tender organized by Exxon Neftegas Limited, an ExxonMobil subsidiary. More than 20 leading ship-owning companies took part in the tender.The company's tankers will fully meet all requirements for marine safety and will also be ice-class vessels, which will allow them to navigate year round in harsh environment offshore far east Russia. The tankers will be built in South Korea with credit from foreign banks. Delivery of the first tanker has been scheduled for mid-January 2006, while the second tanker will be delivered in mid-February of 2006.
The construction of these two tankers is part of the company's Fleet Upgrade Program, which calls for adding 30 new tankers with a combined deadweight of 3,135,000 tons to the Sovcomflot fleet. Some of the ships have already been commissioned, while the others should join the fleet in 2003-2006.
The Sovcomflot Open Joint Stock Company, which is wholly state-owned, is one of Russia's biggest shipping companies. The company's main lines of business include carrying liquid, dry, and bulk cargo and passengers with its own ships, operating vessels purchased with the financial assistance of European and American banks, ship charter, purchase, and sale brokerage transactions, commissioning new ships and selling ships for scrap, arranging financing for the purchase of ships, chartering and operating passenger ships and cruise liners, etc.
At present the company's fleet includes 67 ships of different types with a combined deadweight of 3,600,000 tons. These ships were built at shipyards in Japan, Germany, South Korea, and Croatia in compliance with the requirements of leading international classification societies and under their supervision. The ship's fleet includes modern crude oil tankers, petroleum product tankers, container carriers, bulk cargo ships, timber ships, multi-purpose ships, and cruise liners. These modern ships were built and are operated in compliance with international navigational safety (SOLAS) and marine pollution prevention (MARPOL) requirements.
For more information please visit our website: www.sovkomflot.com