Russian shipowner Sovcomflot (SCF Group)’s first pioneering LNG-fuelled aframax tanker will be delivered by Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries in South Korea next month.

The 114,000-dwt Gagarin Prospect — named after the first Russian cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin — will be handed over to Shell at the start of its multi-year time charter on 25 July.

A sistership, Samuel Prospect, named in a salute to the founder of Shell Transport & Trading Co, Sir Marcus Samuel, is scheduled for delivery to the oil major next year.