Product tankers lead Sovcomflot profit rise

The company's oil products transportation division saw time charter equivalent (TCE) revenues rise 21.5% to 64.5m, helping profit to an 85.3% rise to $40.2m. Gas transportation also fared well as extra tonnage aided in pushing TCE revenues up 44.5% and profit up 52.1% to $24.8m.

Even the group's offshore development services arm managed to return a flat profit of $44.5m, insulated from the dire state of the market by its charters.

“Sovcomflot has made a very encouraging start to 2015, following five years of recession within the global tanker market,"
commented Sergey Frank, president and ceo.

"A strong performance from the crude and product tanker freight markets has built upon underlying profits generated from our increasing fixed income gas and offshore fleets. Timely fleet exposure to the oil product and crude spot markets, as well as maintaining our critical size to capture the volatility in those markets, has resulted in a significant rise in profits during the first quarter of 2015."

SCF's orderbook currently stands at nine vessels, each with long-term timecharters from delivery: two LNG carriers, four ice breaking supply vessels and three ice class shuttle tankers.

Forward revenue for the company stands at $8.7bn, up from $6.7bn at the end of Q1 2014.