On August 7, 2021, the Arctic shuttle tanker Timofey Guzhenko discharged at the port of Murmansk the milestone 80-millionth tonne of crude oil shipped from the Varandey oil terminal operated by LUKOIL.
This shipment became the 1,159th since cargo operations at the Varandey terminal began in June 2008. From this beginning, all oil shipped from Varandey is transported to the port of Murmansk by three of SCF’s 70,000-dwt Arctic shuttle tankers (ice class Arc6): Vasily Dinkov; Kapitan Gotsky, and Timofey Guzhenko.
The project's success depends upon its effective logistics model, which involved designing and building a series of large-capacity tankers capable of operating in difficult ice conditions without icebreaking assistance, a unique feature for this period.
In 2011, Sovcomflot received a Russian Government award for science and technology, for the development and industrial commissioning of innovative solutions to establish a transport system for the Varandey project in the Arctic Ocean.
All three tankers operate under the Russian flag, sail with Russian crews, and have St. Petersburg as their port of registry.