Russia’s largest shipping company SCF Group (PAO Sovcomflot) and its compatriot VTB Bank signed a USD 260 million loan agreement to finance the construction of an Arctic LNG tanker for the Yamal LNG project.
The new tanker will be able to carry up to 172,600 cubic metres of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and has an ARC7 enhanced ice class, enabling independent navigation in ice fields of up to 2.1 metres thick.
The vessel, scheduled for delivery in the first quarter of 2017, will have a 45 MW propulsion system.
“We are completing the construction of an innovative vessel, which has no analogues in the world to date, and we have concluded a unique transaction to finance this project. This is one of the first such agreements ever signed in Russia, to finance a vessel construction, which is traditionally a very capital-intensive and long-term investment project,” Sovcomflot’s President and CEO, Sergey Frank, said.
In May, Sovcomflot reached an agreement with South Korean shipbuilder Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME) to postpone the delivery of the ARC7 ice-class vessel which was scheduled to join its owner in June 2016.
The shipbuilder set the new date at the end of January 2017, postponing the delivery by seven months.
SCF and DSME signed the USD 316 million worth agreement for the new tanker in March 2014.
Ordered under a USD 5 billion newbuild program for 16 ice-breaking LNG carriers, the new ship is designed to transport LNG from a gas field in the Yamal Peninsula (Yamal LNG), Siberia.