Sovcomflot, NYK refinance LNGCs
Russian shipping group Sovcomflot and Japanese counterpart NYK Line have secured a loan to refinance two jointly-owned ice-class LNG carriers working at the Sakhalin-2 project.
The pair have signed for an eight-year credit facility worth $176mn with Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui Banking and Shinsei Bank and France's Societe Generale, Sovcomflot said in a statement on September 12.
The facility will be used to refinance the 145,000-m2 Grand Elena and Grand Aniva LNG carriers, built in 2007 and 2008. The two vessels have been working at Sakhalin-2 since its launch in March 2009 and have since transported more than 46.5bn m3 of gas in 325 voyages.