Sovcomflot and Novatek to support development of ship repair cluster at Zvezda

The press release accompanying the agreement noted that the agreement entailed an “expansion of cooperation between the parties on servicing and repairing vessels and vessel equipment using the ship repair cluster’s facilities”.

The Motorship notes that the trilateral agreement offers greater certainty about the pipeline of repair work for the prospective ship repair project. By contrast, the initial announcement of the construction of the Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex in 2014 was followed by a delay before ship owners committed to support the project.

Zvezda has begun serial production of modern large-capacity LNG carrier vessels. The agreement coincided with the keel-laying ceremony for a new 51,000 dwt MR product carrier ordered by SCF to transport gas condensate in the Baltic under a 20-year time charter to Novatek.

The vessel is designed to use LNG as its primary fuel. In total, three such tankers have been ordered by SCF from Zvezda, scheduled for delivery in 2022–2023.