FSU OGM: Russian bookings generating new business for Sovcomflot

Russia’s state-owned tanker operator Sovcomflot (SCF) is still attracting plenty of business, with a surge of recent bookings from Russian oil producers partially making up for the loss of Western clients in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, according to a report from Bloomberg.

SCF, the owner of the world’s largest fleet of mid-sized crude oil carriers, saw a large portion of its fleet go underutilised in the first two months after the outbreak of war in Ukraine. Since the beginning of May, however, Russian oil companies have increased their bookings of SCF tankers. Two state-owned companies, Rosneft and Gazprom, have arranged to use the company’s ships to load and deliver crude oil from various locations in Russia to customers in Asia.

Sources with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg that Rosneft has been using SCF tankers to deliver Urals Blend crude to destinations along India’s west coast. The news agency also quoted shipbrokers as saying that Gazprom’s oil arm, Gazprom Neft, was using SCF tankers to load cargoes of ESPO crude in May.