On 15 January 2021, PAO Sovcomflot (SCF Group) took delivery of SCF Timmerman, a new 174,000-cbm LNG carrier. The same day, the vessel embarked upon her maiden commercial voyage. The carrier is operated under a long-term time charter agreement with Shell, which will provide SCF with an additional USD 165 million of contract backlog.
The naming ceremony for the vessel was held on 12 January 2021. The carrier was named after Frans Timmerman, a 17th-century Dutch merchant who served as a shipbuilding mentor to the Russian emperor Peter the Great and played an important role in creating the Russian seaborne fleet. The naming ceremony was attended by: Igor Tonkovidov, President and Chief Executive Officer of PAO Sovcomflot; Cederic Cremers, Country Chair Shell Russia; representatives from the vessel’s builders, Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries, and financiers, ING Bank, KfW IPEX-Bank, and Crédit Agricole.
As per maritime tradition, the vessel’s sponsor, Ekaterina Grushetskaya, Vice President for Conventional Oil and Gas at Shell Russia, wished the new carrier, her master and crew ‘calm seas and fair winds.’
Igor Tonkovidov noted:
“SCF Group and Shell enjoy a long-standing, mutually beneficial partnership. Shell is amongst the biggest charterers of SCF’s vessels. All projects realised by the two companies, over the last five years, are distinguished by high levels of environmental safety and the adoption of energy-saving shipping technologies. By adding another vessel to our gas fleet and expanding our cooperation with Shell, we contribute to achieving our strategic goals of solidifying our position in LNG shipping and growing our portfolio of long-term, fixed income contracts, which provide SCF with stable cash flows, resistant to freight market fluctuations.”
SCF Timmerman is the third vessel in a series of 174,000-cbm new-generation Atlanticmax LNG carriers ordered by SCF Group in 2018. The lead vessel of the series, SCF La Perouse, was delivered to SCF in February 2020 and is time chartered to Total. The second vessel in the series, SCF Barents, was delivered to SCF in September 2020 and is also time chartered to Shell.
Vessels in this series incorporate the latest technologies in terms of safety, environmental protection, and energy efficiency, with their fuel consumption substantially reduced compared to the preceding generation of vessels. Each LNG carrier is equipped with an advanced Mark III Flex cargo containment system, slow-speed dual-fuel X-DF engine, and a system that reduces nitrogen oxide emissions while the vessel sails in liquid fuel mode. In addition, all vessels of the series are among the first globally to feature a boil-off gas partial re-liquefaction system, which significantly reduces cargo losses while on long voyages or awaiting cargo operations.