A STEP AHEAD : Russian state-owned shipping enterprise Sovcomflot and oil giant Rosneft have paved the road through an agreement for the construction of five liquefied natural gas (LNG)-fuel powered Aframax tanker. Under construction agreement, the new tankers would be constructed at Russia’s Zvezda Shipbuilding Facility in cooperation with South Korea’s “Chaibol” Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI). The five ( 5) 114,000 dwt tankers are scheduled to be delivered and added to the flees of Rosneft no later than 2021. The tankers will have as main feature an ice class of 1A/1B which will ensure safe full year operations in those ice demanding, Baltic Sea and subarctic seas, among others . Rosneft, will hold title to the tankers, however they will be operated Sovcomflot, as has been commented by Panama Maritime Expert Attorney Ismael Gerli. SCF will be in charge of supervising the construction process to guarantee effective timing and safe management conditions LNG fuel will be the main fuel for the tankers, thus reducing their environmental impact. All five tankers have been designed taking into account newly enacted legislation to decrease environmental impact and contamination, as design of the tankers goes in hand with international restrictions on emissions of sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides and greenhouse gases, to enter into force in 2020, the tankers will be mainly fueled by LNG, thereby cutting their environmental impact and emissions.
