Sovcomflot has won the annual Marine Money "Deal of the Year" in the category Green Ship Finance – West. The publication recognized Sovcomflot's USD 252M seven-year credit agreement with a consortium of foreign banks to finance the construction of a series of the world's first large-capacity LNG-fuelled tankers.

ABN AMRO Bank, BNP Paribas, Citibank, ING Bank, KfW IPEX-Bank and Societe Generale became the parties to the agreement signed in April 2018.

According to Marine Money, "Sovcomflot and its bankers got out ahead of the curve. The company has demonstrated time and again its forward-facing Board and Management commitment to doing the right thing — and often doing it boldly before the rest."  

"The Editors of Marine Money are proud to give this first Green Ship Finance Award to the management, men and women of Sovcomflot, and the banks with the vision and confidence to back them despite market volatility and geopolitics," notes the article.

The green finance award received by SCF highlights the growth in projects designed to reduce shipping's environmental impact. "This is a new category — one that will take on greater and greater importance as companies, financial institutions and shareholders all strive for greater environmental, social and governance performance measures", - notes Marine Money.

Background:

SCF's "green series" of tankers are designed in line with the new international conventions on control of emissions of sulphur oxide (SOx), nitrogen and greenhouse gases coming into force in 2020, as well as in accordance with increased environmental and safety standards for vessels operating in the Baltic and North Sea basins. 

Deadweight of each vessel is 114,000 tonnes (Aframax) with the ice class 1A/1B.

Compared to vessels running on standard heavy fuel oil, tankers running on LNG emit 100% less sulphur oxides (SOx) and particulate matter, 76% less nitrogen oxides (NOx), and 27% less carbon dioxide (CO2).

Fuel consumption of Aframax tankers operating on liquefied natural gas (LNG) is 20% lower than on tankers using the traditional fuel.

At the moment, the fleet consists of five vessels of the "green" series: Gagarin Prospect, Lomonosov Prospect, Mendeleev Prospect, Korolev Prospect, and Vernadsky Prospect. The sixth vessel will join the company's fleet in April this year.

SCF portfolio of orders has five more "green" tankers of various types, which will be built at Zvezda Shipyard (Bolshoy Kamen, Primorsky Krai).