Naming ceremony takes place for LPG carriers - Sibur Voronezh and Sibur Tobol (photo report)
А naming ceremony was held at the Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co. Ltd. shipyard in South Korea for the first two vessels in a new series of LPG carriers (liquefied petroleum gas) ordered by Sovcomflot Group, to operate on long-term contracts with the petrochemical holding company SIBUR. The carriers will serve to transport LPG from SIBUR’s LPG and light oils transhipment terminal at the Ust-Luga commercial sea port, SIBUR says.
In 2012, Sovcomflot and SIBUR signed a long-term agreement for the charter of two gas carriers to provide regular transportation of liquefied petroleum gas all year round. In 2013, SIBUR will start exporting LPG via its own terminal at the sea port of Ust-Luga.
The structural design of the vessels includes: a ballast water treatment system, a requirement for all vessels since 2013, and a reinforced hull for non-stop year-round operations in the North Atlantic with an active service life of 25 years, significantly longer if the vessels are used in normal conditions. The design of these 1B ice class vessels (Ice3 in the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping) will allow them to operate effectively in the low temperatures of the Baltic Sea, during their winter voyages. Navigation equipment and software from Russian manufacturers was used in the construction of these vessels.
The new vessels are due to be delivered to SCF in August-September of this year.
Technical characteristics of the vessels: Length: 159m, Beam size: 25.60m, Depth: 16.40m, Estimated draught: 10.90m, Deadweight: 22,760 tonnes, Propulsion engine power: 7,780kw.
Sovcomflot Group (SCF) is Russia’s largest shipping company. It is a world leader in the maritime transportation of hydrocarbons and provides support for shelf exploration and oil & gas production. The SCF fleet (owned and chartered) includes 160 vessels with a combined deadweight of over 12 million tonnes. It specialises in the transportation of hydrocarbons from areas with challenging icy conditions and a third of the fleet’s vessels have a high ice class. Sovcomflot supports large-scale offshore energy projects in Russia and the rest of the world, including: Sakhalin-I, Sakhalin-II, Varandey, Tangguh, Escobar, and Peregrino. The company is registered in Saint-Petersburg and has representative offices in: Moscow; Novorossiysk; Murmansk; Vladivostok; London; Limassol; Madrid; Singapore and Dubai.
SIBUR (www.sibur.com) is a uniquely positioned vertically integrated gas processing and petrochemicals company. SIBUR owns and operates Russia’s largest gas processing business in terms of associated petroleum gas processing volumes, and is a leader in the Russian petrochemicals industry. As of 31 March 2013, SIBUR operated 27 production sites across Russia.
SIBUR's Ust-Luga terminal is the largest in the CIS and the first in Northwest Russia to tranship LPG. The terminal is capable of handling up to 1.5 million tonnes of LPG and up to 2.5 million tonnes of light oils each year.