On 3 February 2022, the Arctic shuttle tanker Timofey Guzhenko took part in rescuing the crew of a fishing vessel (RB-1633) that was wrecked in the Barents Sea, off Cape Teribersky, 50 miles from Murmansk.
The tanker received a distress signal at 11:10 local time while performing her regular shuttle voyage to deliver crude oil from the Varandey terminal to the port of Murmansk.
"The signal was very weak, we could barely hear it. We established a contact and received information that RB-1633 was ruptured and pushed onto the rocks by strong winds and waves; four crew members were stranded on the rocks with no life-saving equipment and warm clothes, whilst another person tragically fell overboard. We transmitted the information to the rescue centre and set a course for the distressed vessel. Unfortunately, we were not able to lift the stranded seafarers off the rocks ourselves, as neither the tanker nor our lifeboat could get close enough due to the low depths and the high waves. Eventually, an EMERCOM helicopter arrived to evacuate the seafarers to Murmansk. The tanker crew helped guide the helicopter to the exact distress location. According to the information we have, the lives of all four rescued individuals are no longer in danger." said Ivan Petrov, the Master of Timofey Guzhenko.
After the evacuation was completed, the tanker resumed her voyage to Murmansk.
The management of SCF Group and the technical managers of the tanker, SCF Management Services (Saint-Petersburg), expressed their gratitude to the Master and crew of Timofey Guzhenko for their professionalism and courage in saving lives in adverse weather conditions.
SCF Press Service
PAO Sovcomflot (MOEX:FLOT) is one of the world's leading energy shipping companies, specialising in the transportation of crude oil, petroleum products, and liquefied gas, as well as the servicing of offshore oil and gas production. As of the date of this release, the Group’s fleet comprises 133 vessels with a total deadweight of 11.6 million tonnes, including vessels owned through joint ventures. About 80 vessels have an ice class.
Sovcomflot is involved in servicing large oil and gas projects in Russia and around the world: Sakhalin-1; Sakhalin-2; Varandey; Prirazlomnoe; Novy Port; Yamal LNG; Tangguh (Indonesia). The company is headquartered in Saint Petersburg with offices in Moscow, Novorossiysk, Murmansk, Vladivostok, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, London, Limassol, and Dubai.
The crews of SCF vessels have assisted seafarers in distress on numerous occasions. This has included fully-fledged rescue operations, carried out independently. In 2007, the crew of the LPG carrier SCF Tomsk rescued 41 people in the Atlantic Ocean, 500 miles from the Cape Verde Islands. The rescued seafarers had been stranded in the open sea for over two weeks, staying without either food or drinking water for several days by the time the rescue operation began. In 2008, the crew of the tanker SCF Khibiny rescued 13 people from an Indonesian vessel that had sunk in the Straits of Malacca. In 2010, the tugboat Dobrynya took part in the rescue of nine fishermen swept into the Gulf of Finland on a detached ice floe. In 2014, the crew of the tanker Krasnodar saved six yachtsmen who had become stranded on a life raft in the Atlantic, off the coast of Brazil, for several days. In 2016, the crew of the tanker Leonid Loza rescued ten people from a fishing trawler off the west coast of Africa. In March 2019, the crew of the tanker SCF Surgut rescued 12 people from a yacht caught in a storm in the Caribbean Sea. In November 2019, the crew of the supply vessel Gennadiy Nevelskoy rescued three fishermen in the Sea of Okhotsk. In February 2020, the crew of the tanker SCF Angara rescued seven people from a fishing trawler that sank in the Gulf of Finland off the coast of Estonia. In June 2020, the crew of the tanker NS Power rescued two people from a makeshift raft adrift in the Andaman Sea.