NS Concord

MV NS Concord is Russian owned, Liberian-flagged oil tanker that gained notoriety in 2014 after it was allegedly connected to the submarine search in the Stockholm archipelago.[1]

History
Name:	NS Concord
Owner:	SCF Novoship, Novorossiysk, Russia
Port of registry:	Liberia
Builder:	Hyundai Heavy Industries, Korea
Laid down:	2005
Acquired:	April 20, 2005
Identification:	Call sign: A8FD7 IMO number: 9299692 MMSI number: 636012382
General characteristics
Type:	Aframax C-Class
Tonnage:	105,902 DWT
Length:	243.97 m.
Beam:	42.03 m.
Depth:	21.00 m.
Speed:	15.00

The oil tanker arrived in the area on October 4 but was later charted as zigzagging across the seas, as if searching for something.[2] The vessel "could be a mothership for a possible submarine," according to Stefan Ring, an expert on military strategies at The Swedish National Defence College. "It is possible to use a ship like this as a mothership for mini submarines. Sailing under another flag could be to hide what they really are doing," Ring said.[3] However, Anders Nordin at the Swedish Coastguard told news agency TT that the NS Concord's movements were consistent with normal tanker movements.[4]

NS Concord belongs to the Russian shipping company SCF Novoship, based in Novorossiysk on the Black Sea. The company is in turn part of the state-owned OAO Sovcomflot, one of the world's largest oil transport companies, whose CEO, Sergei Frank, is a close confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin.[5]