Sovcomflot reports 1Q19 results

Operational highlights for 1Q19:

• Korolev Prospect and Vernadsky Prospect delivered - the fourth and fifth vessels in a pioneering ‘Green Funnel’ series of six LNG-fuelled 114 000 DWT Aframax tankers ordered by Sovcomflot. Compliant with new international conventions on emission controls, applicable from 2020, the tankers also conform fully with environmental and safety standards for ships operating in ECA-controlled areas (including the Baltic and North Sea basins).
• In March, the group celebrated the 10^th anniversary of the start of LNG shipments from the Sakhalin-2 project. Over the past decade, Grand Aniva and her sister ship Grand Elena have successfully completed over 300 voyages, delivering some 43.5 million m³ of LNG to Asian customers.
• Yevgeny Primakov, an icebreaking standby vessel employed under long-term time-charter with Sakhalin Energy, was awarded ‘2019 Support Vessel of the Year’ by Offshore Support Journal.
• Gagarin Prospect and Lomonosov Prospect, the world's first LNG-fuelled Aframax tankers, received Green Award certificates, a quality mark for vessels that significantly surpass convention requirements related to environmental protection.
• Sovcomflot received the annual Marine Money 'Deal of the Year' award, in the category Green Ship Finance - West. The publication recognised Sovcomflot's US$252 million 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.

Sergey Frank, President and CEO, comments:

“Sovcomflot started 2019 with a strong 1Q performance, boosted by a return to profitability in our conventional crude and product tanker markets following an upswing in the first months of 2019. Profits from our crude fleet in particular increased 53% year-on-year compared to 1Q18.

“Although spot market rates for conventional tankers have yet to reach their historic averages, they have come off the low levels witnessed in the 2017 – 3Q18 period and, whilst we remain cautious for 2Q19, we believe that a sustainable market recovery in the conventional tanker markets appears likely towards the end of 2019 and through 2020.

“Despite cautious optimism about conventional tankers, it is our industrial fleet working in the Offshore and Gas sectors where Sovcomflot specialises in delivering safety-focused operations, with high quality assets, under long-term contracts that remains central to group strategy going forward. We have a number of such projects delivering in the next two years, and a pipeline of opportunities that we are looking to develop over the next five year window that will further increase Sovcomflot’s participation in these core strategic sectors.”

Read the article online at: https://www.lngindustry.com/lng-shipping/16052019/sovcomflot-reports-1q19-results/