OREANDA-NEWS.  February 17, 2012. The Government of the Russian Federation announced the winners of “The Prize for Achievements in Science and Technology in 2011”. SCF Group is pleased to record that Mr. Sergey Popravko, Member of the Sovcomflot Executive Board and Senior Executive Vice-President, has been awarded one of these highly prestigious prizes.

The citation on Mr Popravko’s award highlights his work “for the development and industrial commissioning of innovative scientific methodological and technological solutions for the establishment of oil transportation system in the seas of the Arctic ocean (taking the Varandey oil loading terminal as an example).”

Sergey Popravko led the team undertaking the design of the Arctic shuttle-tankers of Vasily Dinkov type for the transportation of hydrocarbons in the extreme conditions of the Arctic seas.
 The team’s design work for these new tankers developed, unique technological solutions to allow large Panamax vessels (70,000 dwt) to work effectively in the difficult ice conditions of the Arctic seas throughout the year without the need for support from icebreaker vessels.

The first shipment of crude oil from the Varandey terminal took place in June 2008. In the first three and half years that the Varandey Project has been in operation, the Arctic tankers Vasily Dinkov, Kapitan Gotsky and Timofey Guzhenko have transported 21 million tonnes of oil.

Sergey Popravko said: “Our work at Varandey is a really great achievement, which is due to the efforts of the highly professional team at SCF. Our expertise in the field of arctic shipbuilding isnot just the best in Russia, but in the world.

“In addition to building these new tankers, including the design of these unique vessels, our team has also developed systems to manage these technologically complicated ships. Our captains and crews are the few in the world who possess the expertise to work in the most extreme ice conditions of the Arctic seas.”

Varandey Project – is the world’s unique system of seaborne transportation of oil in the Barents Sea. The Varandey oil terminal started operation on 9 June 2008. The project has a place in The Guinness Book of Records as the world’s most northerly oil terminal operating throughout the year. The project is operated by Naryanmarneftegaz – a joint venture of Lukoil and ConocoPhillips.

SCF Group performs major regular seaborne transportation of oil from the Varandey terminal by three Arctic shuttle tankers: Vasily Dinkov, Kapitan Gotsky and Timofey Guzhenko.