SCF Group and NYK Line sign USD 176 million credit facility for eight years with three leading international banks
Joint venture companies belonging to Sovcomflot (SCF Group) and NYK Line have signed a new USD 176 million non-recourse credit facility for eight years with three leading international banks: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation of Japan (through its German subsidiary, SMBC Bank EU AG); Société Générale of France, and Shinsei Bank of Japan, Sovcomflot says in a press release.
The facility will be used towards refinancing two ice-class LNG carriers servicing the Sakhalin-2 project, Grand Aniva and her sister ship Grand Elena, which are jointly owned and operated by SCF Group and NYK Line. The vessels transport LNG year-round from the port of Prigorodnoye on Sakhalin Island to customers in Japan, South Korea and China under long-term contracts with Sakhalin Energy, the operator of Sakhalin-2 project. Since LNG shipments began from Sakhalin-2 in March 2009, the two carriers have successfully completed 325 voyages, delivering over 46.5 million cubic metres of LNG to customers.
Grand Aniva (built in 2008) and Grand Elena (built in 2007) each have a cargo capacity of 145,000 cubic metres. The vessels are assigned an ice class of 1C, allowing them to safely operate in challenging ice conditions of the Sea of Okhotsk year-round.
With this financing facility, SCF Group is pioneering the adoption of provisions that enable lenders to comply with the Poseidon Principles – an environmental initiative by leading international banks that promotes a low carbon future for the global shipping industry by establishing a framework for assessing and disclosing the climate change impact of ship finance portfolios. The Poseidon Principles are consistent with the International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) ambition to reduce shipping’s greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 per cent by 2050.
Nikolay Kolesnikov, Executive Vice-President & CFO of Sovcomflot, said: "We are delighted to have concluded this new long-term financing agreement for our joint venture companies with NYK Line. We are grateful to our long-standing financial partners for their continued support and are pleased to welcome establishing relations with new international lenders.
"SCF Group continues to demonstrate uninterrupted access to ship finance amid market cyclicality, which allows us to maintain a smooth debt repayment profile and a robust long-term liquidity position fully in line with our budgetary targets.
"We are also pleased that this financing allows us to support the Poseidon Principles, a new initiative by the banking community aimed at decarbonisation of the shipping industry, and to promote responsible and sustainable shipping."
Sovcomflot (SCF Group) is one of the world's leading energy shipping companies, specialising in the transportation of crude oil, petroleum products, and liquefied gas, as well as the servicing of offshore oil and gas exploration and production. The company’s fleet includes 146 vessels with a total deadweight of over 12.8 million tonnes. More than 80 vessels have an ice class.
Sovcomflot is involved in servicing large oil and gas projects in Russia and around the world: Sakhalin-1; Sakhalin-2; Varandey; Prirazlomnoye; Novy Port; Yamal LNG, and Tangguh (Indonesia). The company is headquartered in Saint Petersburg, with offices in Moscow, Novorossiysk, Murmansk, Vladivostok, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, London, Limassol, and Dubai.
In 2018, Sovcomflot pioneered the adoption of LNG as a primary fuel for large-capacity oil tankers and now has six LNG-fuelled crude oil tankers in operation. This ‘Green Funnel’ initiative has been commended by industry experts. In 2018, SCF Group won an Environmental Award – Individual Company category at the Lloyd's List Global Awards. In 2019, Gagarin Prospect, the lead ship in the ‘Green Funnel’ series of LNG-fuelled tankers, won the international Marine Propulsion Award for Ship of the Year 2018 and the Nor-Shipping Next Generation Ship Award.
Морской терминал в Пионерском (Калининградская область) начнет работу не ранее 2021 года
Отставание от графика строительства грузопассажирского терминала в Пионерском (Калининградская область) составляет 9 месяцев. Как передал корреспондент ИАА «ПортНьюс», об этом в ходе Балтийского транспортного форума в Калининграде сообщил заместитель директора Северо-Западного бассейнового управления ФГУП «Росморпорт» Андрей Мошков.
По его словам, готовность объектов федеральной собственности составляет 27,7%.
По оценкам представителя «Росморпорта», терминал сможет начать работу в 2021 году.
Международный морской терминал в Пионерском должен стать одним из крупнейших инфраструктурных сооружений Северо-Западного федерального округа. Он сможет принимать более 400 судов, годовой пассажирооборот превысит 300 тыс. человек.
Проект предполагает строительство морского вокзала с пропускной способностью более 1,2 тыс. человек в час, открытых грузовых площадок площадью 75,5 тыс. кв. м, два причала общей длиной 725 метров. Акватория будущего терминала составит 30,53 га. Стоимость проекта - 8 млрд рублей. В течение трех-четырех лет после завершения стройки порт Пионерский сможет принимать до 250 тыс. туристов в год.
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Ввод морского терминала в Пионерском задержится на девять месяцев - губернатор Калининградской области >>>>
Administration and personnel of Sea Port of Saint-Petersburg sign new Collective Agreement
Andrey Zubarev, Managing Director of Sea Port of Saint-Petersburg JSC (SP SPb), and Emil Solodky, Chairman of the Unified Employee Representative Body, signed the new Collective Agreement for 2020-2022. The document registered at the Employment and Labour Affairs Committee of Saint-Petersburg comes into effect on January 1 of the next year. It will replace the Collective Agreement valid till the end of 2019.
Apart from generally accepted and standard social guarantees ensured by the labour legislation of the Russian Federation, the new Collective Agreement of Sea Port of Saint-Petersburg JSC retains a number of additional benefits for employees. In particular, the company is set to continue sponsoring summer holidays for children, hold cultural and sport events, cover the expenses for visiting sport and fitness centers, provide benefits to the port veterans, provide financial allowance to multi-child families and those celebrating anniversaries, provide additional leave time for shift work and undertake other measures of social support.
Additionally, the Collective Agreement 2020-2022 foresees a new opportunity for the employees – to get a voluntary health insurance policy financed by the company in the employee’s interest. This decision was made upon the results of a poll according to which 73% of port employees had expressed their wish and readiness to join the programme of voluntary medical insurance. Also, most of the pollees had expressed their wish to get compensation for the expenses on sports and fitness centers. The majority opinion was taken into consideration when drafting the document.
Annual expenses per employee in the period of new Collective Agreement validity are to increase by 18% versus the year of 2019.
The negotiations between the employer and the employees on approval of the new version of the Collective Agreement had been lasting from July of the current year. The Unified Employee Representative Body included three trade union organizations of the port: primary trade union organization of the Dockers' Union of Russia, primary trade union organization “Portovik” of the RF Water Transport Workers’ Union and primary trade union organization of Big Port St. Petersburg workers.
“Social cooperation is based on partnership. All issues should be addressed promptly and meaningfully”, said SP SPb Managing Director Andrey Zubarev.
According to the statement, the Collective Agreement reflects the principals of social partnership between employer, employees and trade unions, legal representatives of employees. It ensures efficient operation of the company and creates favorable environment for each employee’s work.
Sea Port of Saint-Petersburg JSC is the largest operator rendering services on handling of all types of dry cargoes at Big Port St. Petersburg. It operates modern multipurpose specialized terminals for handling of general and bulk cargoes and specialized terminals for ro-ro cargoes and containers. In 2018, the company handled 7.7 million tonnes of cargo.
