Sergey Frank, President & CEO of Sovcomflot, said,“Together with Shell,
SCF Group shares a determination to reduce the environmental impact of energy shipping.
I'm sure that it is with such vessels that the
future of merchant shipping lies,” said Sergey Frank, President and CEO of PAO Sovcomflot.
In 2017,
a similar legal fight between PDVSA and the conglomerate of shipping companies Sovcomflot led to an auction in which an inventory of Venezuelan crude
stored in Statia was sold to a trading firm for satisfying a portion of the Russian firm's claim.
The Russian-flagged vessels will have a deadweight of 114,000 metric tons and a 1A/1B ice class, which makes them able to operate in icy conditions year round, including in sub-Arctic seas and Russian ports of the Baltic region,
said Russian shipping company PAO Sovcomflot(SCF Group).
The Clean Arctic Alliance, is campaigning for a ban on HFO use and carriage as fuel in the Arctic,
and notes that a Russian state-owned shipping company Sovcomflot has already spoken openly about the need
to move away from oil-based fuels, and marine bunker fuel supplier Gazpromneft expects to halt fuel oil use from 2025.