EMEA News
Sovcomflot Secures $319 million for New LNG Carriers
OAO Sovcomflot (SCF) has announced in an emailed press release that it has secured $319 million funding to help in purchasing two newbuild Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) carriers.
Dutch bank ING is acting as agent for a consortium of European banks providing the funding to assist in the financing of the SCF Melampus and SCF Mitre, which will be owned by SCF's recently established gas transportation company, SCF Gas Carriers Ltd.
The new 170,000 cubic metre-capacity vessels will be operated on long term contracts by Shell.
The Atlanticmax Ice2 (1C) ice-class gas carriers will feature a tri-fuel engine which will enable it to run on LNG, as well as low sulfur and heavy fuel oils.
SCF said the 10-year financial facility was "limited-recourse" and appropriately long-term, which was good news for the group's liquidity position.
"This deal represents a major milestone for the company in 2014 and serves to demonstrate its continued access to the international financial markets," said Nikolai Kolesnikov, Chief Financial Officer for SCF.
"In the course of the last one and a half year SCF has arranged long-term bank financing in a total amount of over USD 700 million for its growing liquefied gas transportation business."
In October, SCF said construction was underway on a prototype LNG carrier designed to ply the Northern Sea Route (NSR).
