Alexander Medvedev takes part in the naming ceremony for LNG carrier in the city of Jinhae (South Korea)
Alexander Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee took part in the naming ceremony for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier in the city of Jinhae (South Korea). The vessel with a cargo capacity of 170.2 thousand cubic meters was named Pskov, the company said in its press release.
Equipped with a specialist diesel-electric drive, Pskov is among the most efficient and eco-friendly LNG tankers in the world. The vessel is certified as Ice2 class vessel and can ship LNG cargoes in low-temperature conditions, including the Northern Sea Route in the open water. The ship is classified according to the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping and Lloyd's Register.
The Pskov gas carrier is the second one in a series of high-tech ice-class LNG carriers that have been designed on Gazprom's order. Gazprom Marketing & Trading (GM&T) will charter Pskov from Russian shipping company Sovcomflot.
“A new gas carrier will boost the aggregate capacity of the Gazprom-owned fleet to 800 thousand cubic meters of gas – enough to supply some 1.7 million households with electricity during 12 months.
Along with the build-up of new LNG production facilities, the development of our own tanker fleet gives a huge advantage to Gazprom in the premium LNG market,” said Alexander Medvedev.
Gazprom accounts for nearly 5 per cent 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: Yenisei River (cargo capacity – 149 thousand cubic meters), Lena River and Ob River (155 thousand cubic meters each), and Velikiy Novgorod (170.2 thousand cubic meters). Gazprom plans to expand its share in the global LNG market to 15 per cent, when the Vladivostok LNG and Baltic LNG projects come onstream.
GM&T is Gazprom's wholly-owned company dealing with Russian LNG sales abroad and LNG deliveries from third countries.
Sovcomflot Group is among top Russian shipping companies focused on oil, oil products and LNG transportation; a leading tanker operator worldwide.
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 up to 0.55 meters.
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.