OREANDA-NEWS. August 18, 2010.  The ice-class tanker SCF Baltica, owned by SCF Group, began her Arctic voyage along the Northern Sea Route (NSR).

The voyage is unique because it is the first time an Aframax tanker of more than 100,000 dwt is navigating along the NSR shipping lane. SCF Baltica is loaded with a cargo of gas condensate owned by OAO Novatek. She will cover the 7,000 nautical miles (3,000 of which is along the NSR) from the Port of Murmansk to a port of discharge to be determined in China. The NSR route compares with traditional shipping voyage to China, via the Suez Canal, which is some 12,000 miles.

The voyage was preceded by thorough and professional preparatory work performed by the ship’s technical manager, SCF Unicom and specialists from SCF’s head office in Moscow, proficient in a whole range of areas related to navigation, as well as additional measures to provide for safe navigation and protection of the Arctic environment.
The tanker’s crew includes seafarers with great practical experience of ice shipping, including sailing along the shipping lanes of the NSR.

Departments of the Russia’s Ministry of Transport and the State Corporation “Rosatom” took an active part in the preparation of the voyage.
SCF Baltica is to be escorted by the two most powerful nuclear powered ice-breakers in the world – Rossiya (Russia) and 50 Let Pobedy (50 Years of Victory).
The aim of the voyage is to determine the feasibility of delivering energy on a regular, economically viable and safe basis along the NSR from the Barents and Kara Seas to the markets of Southeast Asia.

Statistical data will be collected during the voyage, which will form the basis for planning similar voyages in 2011 and for further research, required for laying new deep-water routes in the high latitudes of the Arctic.

Regular seaborne exports of energy, on a commercial basis along the NSR, will assist the progress of Russia’s North and aid the development of new offshore oil and gas fields in the Arctic, which is of strategic importance to Russia’s economy.

SCF Baltica is expected to arrive at the port of destination in the People’s Republic of China in the first half of September 2010.
SCF Baltica – an Aframax tanker of 114,564 tonnes (dwt), ice class – 1A Super (Arc)
Northern Sea Route – the shortest sea lane between the European part of Russia and Russia’s Far East, historically it formed a national transport communication system in the Arctic.

OAO Novatek – the major independent and the second largest (by production volume) natural gas producer of Russia. Established in 1994, the company is engaged in the prospecting, producing and processing of gas and liquid hydrocarbons. The company’s fields and licenses are in the Yamal-Nenetsk Autonomous Region – the world’s biggest region for natural gas production, which contains about 90 per cent of Russia’s natural gas production and approximately 20 per cent of the world’s [natural] gas production.
Rosatom (Russia’s Nuclear Energy Corporation) unites more than 250 scientific enterprises and organisations, including: all Russia’s civil nuclear companies; enterprises of the nuclear weapons complex; scientific-research institutes and a unique nuclear-powered ice-breaker fleet.

SCF Group (Sovcomflot) is one of Russia’s largest infrastructure companies and has its headquarters in St. Petersburg. Its fleet comprises 147 vessels of more than 10.5 million tonnes (dwt) in total. Its current shipbuilding portfolio includes nine ships of an aggregate 0.8 million tonnes (dwt);
• The company owns the largest ice-class fleet, being No.1 in the Arctic shuttle tanker and ice-class LNG carrier segments;
• SCF Group is a world leader in the product carrier segment; it is the second largest in the Aframax and fourth largest in the Suezmax segments;
• The Group provides its customers with hydrocarbon transportation services; crude oil trans-shipment using floating oil storage vessels; services for the development of effective logistics for energy resource transportation, and specialised vessels for servicing offshore drilling and extraction platforms;
• The average age of vessel in the tanker fleet is approximately seven years (the world average vessel age being 12 years).