Gazprom announced that its newest liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier was named today at STX O&S shipyard in Jinhae, South Korea. The vessel, Velikiy Novgorod, will be the fifth in Gazprom's tanker fleet.
Taking part in the ceremony were Alexander Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Sergey Frank, Director General of Sovсomflot.
Velikiy Novgorod is a gas carrier with membrane cargo tanks and a cargo capacity of 170.2M cu. m. It is equipped with a diesel-electric drive, which can be fueled by LNG, fuel oil or gasoil. The vessel is certified as Ice2 class vessel and can ship cargos in low-temperature conditions, including via the Northern Sea route during the navigable open-water period.
The ship is classified by the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping and Lloyd's Register. The crew will be made up of Russian sailors.
Gazprom Marketing & Trading (GM&T) will charter Velikiy Novgorod from Russian shipping company Sovcomflot. It will be the first vessel in a series of high-tech ice-class LNG carriers that have been designed on Gazprom's order. The vessel will be delivered to GM&T in late January 2014.
"Sovcomflot is constructing a similar gas carrier, Pskov, due to be delivered to Gazprom this September.
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 Velikiy Novgorod and Pskov tankers allow Gazprom to increase the scope of its trading operations and enhance its positions in the global LNG market,” said Alexander Medvedev.
Background
Gazprom accounts for nearly 5% in the global LNG production supplying LNG to ten countries worldwide: Japan, Korea, China, India, Taiwan, the UK, the USA, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Mexico. The Company's tanker fleet comprises four chartered gas carriers: LNG Pioneer (cargo capacity – 138M cu. m), Yenisei River (149M cu. m), Lena River and Ob River (155M cu. m each). Gazprom plans to expand its share in the global LNG market to 15%, when the Vladivostok LNG and Baltic LNG projects come onstream.
Gazprom Marketing & Trading Ltd. (GM&T) is Gazprom's wholly-owned company dealing with Russian LNG sales abroad and LNG deliveries from third countries.
Sovcomflot Group is one of the world's leading shipping companies, specializing in marine transportation of hydrocarbons, as well as supporting offshore exploration for oil and gas. The company is the world's largest operator of ice-class LNG carriers. Its own and chartered fleet includes 158 vessels with a total cargo capacity of nearly 12 million tons.
According to the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping, Ice2 class includes ice-going vessels capable of non-escorted transit in the ice cake and brash ice of Nearctic seas or in solid ice escorted by an icebreaker, with ice thickness reaching 0.55m.
Lloyd's Register is the oldest and world's largest ship-classification society. It is a voluntary association of ship owners, ship builders, engine builders, and insurance underwriters.
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