SCF Group fixes finance package

Russia’s SCF Group has signed an agreement with VEB.RF Group, a Russian financial institution, for the lease financing of the first in a series of icebreaking LNG carriers to provide transport for the Arctic LNG 2 project.

The three-train LNG development will require 17 new vessels of the same design to be built between now and 2026. They will be chartered by SCF Group to Novatek, Russia’s second largest gas producer, following the signing of a joint venture agreement between the two companies in Vladivostok earlier this year. The vessels will be built at Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex in the Russian Far East. Built to Arc7 ice standards, they will be capable of breaking ice more than two metres thick and will operate year-round in the icy conditions of the Kara Sea and the Gulf of Ob.