-The Stena Arctica and our cooperation with Sovcomflot are important steps in our ambition to provide the Baltic and the North Sea with safe seabourne transportation of Russian oil, says Ulf G. Ryder, CEO of Stena Bulk. In 2008, Stena Bulk and its sister company Concordia Maritime will be operating a fleet of about a dozen large, ice-strengthened tankers.

Cooperation
The cooperation between the shipping companies Stena Bulk and Sovcomflot includes building up a pool of 10-15 ice-strengthened tankers, due to begin in February, 2006. The objective is to ship 20-25 million tons of Russian oil per year from the Baltic to the UK/Continent. This is equivalent to about 1/3 of the volumes shipped from the terminal in Primorsk in the Gulf of Finland.

The volumes of Russian oil transported through Swedish waters have rocketed since the new terminal in Primorsk was built 2001. The first year, 0.3 million tons were exported and in 2005, 57 million tons of oil were transported out from the Gulf of Finland.

Another ambition of Stena Bulk and Sovcomfolt is to jointly develop a so-called B-MAX tanker, with B standing for Baltic. This vessel type will be extremely wide-bodied with a shallow draft and will load as much as 250,000 tons. All propulsion systems will be doubled, which will give even better manoeuvrability while also enhancing safety.
Finally, cooperation in the training of crews for shipping in icy waters has been initiated, this includes sponsorship of a training program and a training centre at the Makarov Institute in St. Petersburg.

Godmother
The Stena Arctica’s godmother, Jane Olsson Thorburn, is an Associate Professor at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Sahlgrenska Hospital in Gothenburg and Senior Physician at the Department of Reproductive Medicine, Sahlgrenska Hospital in Gothenburg. She is a member of the board of the World Childhood Foundation and chairperson of the Gothenburg branch of The Swedish Association for Victim Support in Gothenburg as well as a member of the boards of British Factory and the Assar Gabrielsson Foundation in Gothenburg. Jane Olsson Thorburn is married to Dan Sten Olsson, CEO and majority shareholder of Stena.

For more information, please contact

Ulf G. Ryder
President & CEO
Tel +46 31 855001
Mobile +46 704 855001

Stena Bulk - With offices in five countries, Stena Bulk is one of the world’s leading tanker shipping companies. We supply our customers with innovative solutions to satisfy their transportation and logistics requirements via, among other resources, our own design department. The company has a controlled fleet of about 70 tankers and is active in all the segments of the tanker market. Stena Bulk also has the marketing and operative responsibility for Concordia Maritime’s whole fleet. Stena Bulk is a company in the Stena Sphere, which has more than 13,000 employees and a turnover of SEK 34 billion.

Sovcomflot-Sovcomflot is the largest shipping company in Russia and one of the 20 largest in the world. The company’s activities are mainly concentrated to the Russian energy sector. Sovcomflot has its head office in Moscow and offices in St. Petersburg, Geneva, London and Cyprus (Limassol). Sovcomflot was the first Russian shipping company to be formed in accordance with international shipping practice and, today, owns 47 vessels totalling 3.6 million dwt.

Background facts

Ship facts: Stena Arctica
Length: 249.8 metres
Width: 44 metres
Draft: 15.4 metres
Yard: HHE (Hyundai Heavy Industries), South Korea
Deadweight: 117,100 tons
No. of cargo tanks: 7
Cargo: Crude oil

Stena Bulk/Concordia Maritime’s existing ice-classed fleet
Stena Bulk’s fleet consists of 67 vessels totalling 6.1 million deadweight tons*, including its newbuilding program. The vessels listed below are ice-classed and are thus designed for sea transport in the Baltic Sea:

The total deadweight of the above 12 vessels is approx. 900,000 tons. The total market value of the fleet is SEK 5.5 billion.

* A vessel’s deadweight is the total of the weight of the cargo the vessel can load, the bunker oil the vessel needs to power its machinery, stores, provisions and crew.

Ice class
When ice forms on the water, the authorities impose restrictions on maritime traffic. Ships have to satisfy certain requirements in order to be eligible for icebreaking assistance. Swedish ships are built in accordance with joint Finnish and Swedish ice class regulations. In this system, the lowest ice class is 1C and the highest is 1A Super. The Stena Arctica is built in accordance with Ice Class 1A Super regulations, which means that she can sail under her own power through 1 metre thick ice.

Swedish shipping and the Swedish flag
The Swedish merchant fleet consists of about 570 ships totalling 10 million tons deadweight. About 230 of these are Swedish flagged while the remainder are owned abroad or long-term chartered by Swedish shipping companies.

The fact that a ship flies the Swedish flag means that it has been approved by the Swedish Maritime Safety Inspectorate and that Swedish collective wage agreements are in force on board. The crew of 26 on board the Stena Arctica consists mainly of Swedish seafarers but also seafarers from other countries. These latter crew members work according to special collective wage agreements between the Swedish employers, the Swedish maritime unions and international maritime unions.

Ship models: