Gazprom to double fleet of chartered gas carriers in 2013
AMSTERDAM. May 31 (Interfax) - Gazprom plans to double its fleet of chartered gas carriers by the end of this year, the Russian gas giant's CEO, Alexei Miller said at a conference on the Development of LNG and its Impact on European Gas Markets, held as part of the annual meeting of the European Business Congress.
"Marine transport of LNG at the Gazprom group is handled by Gazprom Marketing and Trading. Right now we have three gas tankers chartered. In the course of the year our fleet will be increased by another four modern, high performance ships," Miller said.
"In a relatively short period we have become a full-fledged participant in the global LNG trade and enjoy the deserved confidence of consumers. The Gazprom group's LNG volumes supplement our leading positions in the area of natural gas sales and give our business additional advantages, including thanks to swap operations and optimization of shipments," Miller said.
The current fleet of gas carriers sails under the names Reka Ob, Stena Blue Sky and LNG Pioneer. The new tankers will be called Reka Yenisei, Reka Lena, Veliky Novgorod and Pskov. The latter two will be chartered from Sovcomflot, according to Miller's presentation.
Miller recalled in his speech that Gazprom "will soon announce another new LNG project." He declined to provide any additional information about this project.
However, market analysts speculate that this could refer to an LNG plant on the cost of the Gulf of Finland to produce small batches of LNG. Miller gave great importance to such small scale production in his speech.
Analysts also believe this could be an LNG plant in the Timan-Pechora region. Gas could be delivered to such a plant by trunk pipeline from the Bovanenkovskoye field. Such a project could also tap the resources of the Pechora LNG project, market players reckon.
