OREANDA-NEWS. August 25, 2014. The tanker Anichkov Bridge owned by the Sovcomflot Group (SCF) completed its passage of the Northern Sea Route (NSR).

The MR-size vessel of high ice class Ice-1A (Arc4) and deadweight of 47,000 tons carried out a ballast voyage along the Northern Sea Route westwards. The tanker’s destination is the port of Vysotsk (Gulf of Finland), where it will take aboard heavy petroleum products for the charterer North Eastern Shipping Company Ltd. The Anichkov Bridge was the first supertanker to complete the passage via the Northern Sea Route this year.

The Russian-flagged tanker Anichkov Bridge is equipped with all available means of communication, including satellite connections. Onboard the ship is equipped with up-to-date navigation systems Glonass and GPS. Technical management of the vessel is carried out by Unicom (St. Petersburg), the SCF subsidiary.

The vessel was escorted by the atomic icebreaker Vaygach operated by FSUE Atomflot. The cruise was held in harsh ice conditions that were more extreme this time.

Over the last five years, large-tonnage fleet of the Sovcomflot Group sequentially heads along the NSR. During this time, IAI Sovcomflot experts have accumulated wide technical and navigation experience in the Arctic latitudes, mastered a new deep-water passage called the Tikhonov Route – in honor of Vladimir Tikhonov, the outstanding figure in Russian shipping industry, one of the founders of the company and the shipmaster.