Sovcomflot has signed a new $252 mn 7-year credit facility with a consortium of six leading international banks, which includes ABN AMRO Bank, BNP Paribas, Citibank, ING Bank, KfW IPEX-Bank, and Société Générale.
According to the company, “The credit facility benefits from a favourable long-term tenor and competitive pricing”.
The funds will be used towards financing a series of six Aframax tankers, the first-ever such vessels purpose-designed to be powered by LNG, currently under construction and due for delivery from Q3 2018 to Q2 2019.
Each 114,000-deadweight tanker will have an ice class 1A hull, enabling safe year-round export operations from regions with challenging ice conditions, such as the Baltic.
Two vessels will work exclusively for Shell under time-charters for up to ten years, while Shell will also provide LNG fuel for all the six tankers in the series across North West Europe and the Baltic.