OAO Gazprom has chartered its fifth and now largest LNG carrier from Russian shipping company Sovcomflot at the STX O&S shipyard in the city of Jinhae, South Korea.
The Velikiy Novgorod vessel has a capacity of 170,000 cu m, including membrane cargo tanks, and is run by a diesel-electric drive fueled by LNG, fuel oil, or gas oil.
The Ice2 class vessel, first in a series of high-tech ice-class LNG carriers designed for Gazprom, is capable of shipping cargoes in low-temperature conditions, including through the Northern Sea Route during the navigation period in the open water.
“At present, Sovcomflot is constructing a similar gas carrier, Pskov, which is due to be delivered to Gazprom this September,” said Alexander Medvedev, director general of Gazprom export.
Medvedev added, “Gazprom is pursuing a stagewise strategy in the LNG production and supply sector. As part of these efforts, we are creating our own tanker fleet capable of shipping LNG to any terminal of the world, as well as along the Northern Sea Route.”
The company's tanker fleet is comprised of the LNG Pioneer (138,000 cu m capacity), Yenisei River (149,000 cu m), Lena River and Ob River (each 155,000 cu m), the latter of which successfully delivered in November 2012 the first LNG cargo through the Northern Sea Route (OGJ Online, Dec. 6, 2012).
Gazprom plans to expand its share in the global LNG market to 15% after the Vladivostok LNG and Baltic LNG projects are onstream.
Gazprom accounts for nearly 5% in the global LNG production, supplying LNG to Japan, South Korea, China, India, Taiwan, the UK, the USA, Kuwait, the UAE, and Mexico.
Gazprom in November projected late 2017 for its LNG terminal on the Baltic Sea coast in the far-western region of Kaliningrad, between Poland and Lithuania (OGJ Online, Nov. 26, 2013). The company’s management committee in February 2013 approved investment in the Vladivostok LNG export project in Russia (OGJ Online, Feb. 25, 2013).
