Sovcomflot has signed a new $110 mn credit facility, for ten years, with three leading international banks: ING Bank N.V.; SMBC Bank EU AG and Unicredit Bank AG.
The facility will be used to finance two new ice-class shuttle tankers, to be delivered in Q1 2022, to serve the Sakhalin-1 project (oil and gas development in the Sea of Okhotsk, on the north-eastern shelf of Sakhalin Island, Russia).
Exxon Neftegas Ltd. (an affiliate of Exxon Mobil) is the project operator and acts as the charterer for the vessels, SCF said.
The new vessels will incorporate advanced design features that meet the latest environmental requirements, providing improved fuel efficiency and decreased CO2 emissions by at least 10% (when compared with previous generations of shuttle tankers).
The delivery of the vessels will further enlarge SCF Group’s industrial business portfolio, adding more than $300 mn in value to Sovcomflot’s contract backlog, the company said in a statement.