OREANDA-NEWS. Sergei Frank briefed Vladimir Putin on Sovcomflot’s projects, as well as on the company’s investment activities.

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PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Any news, Mr Frank? How is your company developing?

SOVCOMFLOT CEO SERGEI FRANK: Mr President, Sovcomflot operates in the competitive international tanker shipping market. Despite the fact that this is the fifth year of the most severe recession in the tanker sector, we are reaching all the targets set out in the company’s development strategy and proceeding according to plan.

While realising the strategy over the past seven years, we’ve increased our fleet by 200%: we started in 2005 with four million dwt [deadweight tonnage], and today we have a fleet of 12 million dwt. We have mastered the technology of liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipping – a very promising area for Russia – and we have been able to make shuttle shipments in the Russian Arctic for the first time. We continue to gain experience along the Northern Sea Route, and we have a number of trips scheduled for this year.

VLADIMIR PUTIN: What work is being conducted offshore?

SERGEI FRANK: Let’s say that in the 1990s and the 2000s the main drivers of the company’s growth were foreign markets and shipping the cargo of international freighters. We refocused our strategy on the needs of Russian companies and we were right to do so, because now the main drivers of our growth are Russian projects on the continental shelf. We transport all the crude oil from the Sakhalin projects and the Varandey project, and nearly all the LNG from the Sakhalin projects.

The Sovcomflot tanker Yenisei has set out from Murmansk to Japan along the Northern Sea Route, a high-latitude route. In fact, this route is coming to life before our very eyes. A new icebreaking supply vessel, Alexei Chirikov, arrived in Sakhlin as requested by Rosneft and Exxon, the operators of the Sakhalin-1 project. The vessel was built jointly by Russian and Finnish shipbuilders and this series of ships will be further developed. We are currently taking part in Gazprom’s tender for four vessels for the Sakhalin-2 project.

There are some more good news: the ship Sibur Voronezh has started transporting LNG, just as SIBUR [gas processing and petrochemicals company] wanted. It was Russian projects and their good dynamics that have allowed us to maintain our position in the international tanker shipping market during the economic crisis.