Sovcomflot Group (SCF Group) has bought two multi-purpose icebreaking platform supply vessels (PSVs) from Swire Pacific Offshore that will serve offshore production platforms at the Sakhalin-2 gas project in the Sea of Okhotsk off Russia's Far East.

The acquisition of the new vessels, both of which have ice-class (Ice-10) notation, will bring the number of PSVs operated by SCF Group at the Sakhalin project up to three.

The three vessels are under long-term time charter contracts with Sakhalin Energy, which operates the Sakhalin-2 project. The company's shareholders are Gazprom, Shell, Mitsui and Diamond Gas.

"The high-tech, multifunctional icebreaking vessels being purchased by Sovcomflot are among the best in their class. Management of such vessels operating in the waters of the Sea of Okhotsk with year-round navigation requires special skills, expertise and knowledge possessed by our seafarers, many of whom were trained to exacting standards of the unique maritime school of the Russian Far East," said Evgeny Ambrosov, Sovcomflot's senior executive vice-president and COO.