15 October 2007

Tankers will serve Russia’s Sakhalin II Project

The naming ceremony for two new LNG carriers, “Grand Elena” and “Grand Aniva”, took place on October 4, 2007 at Mitsubishi shipyard in Nagasaki, Japan. The ‘Grand Elena’ was named after Mrs Elena Zolotareva, former manager of Sakhalin Energy Investment Company and her sister ship, ‘Grand Aniva’ bears the name of Aniva Bay on Sakhalin Island where the vessels loading terminal is located.
Both vessels are 145,000m3 capacity ice class with four Moss-type spherical tanks. The vessels were built for a Japanese-Russian Consortium established in 2004 by Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK) and JSC Sovcomflot. The vessels will be employed in the Sakhalin-II project on a 20 year contract to transport LNG from Prigorodnoye terminal near Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in Russia, to Japan, South Korea and Baja California (Mexico).

The Sakhalin-II project started in 1994 as the first Russian offshore LNG Project. On 18 April 2007, shareholders of Sakhalin Energy signed a Sale and Purchase agreement with Gazprom to instigate the transfer of shares in Sakhalin Energy. Under Sakhalin Energy’s new shareholding structure, Gazprom holds 50 per cent plus 1 share, Shell 27.5 per cent, Mitsui 12.5 per cent and Mitsubishi 10 per cent.

Sakhalin Energy will operate the Sakhalin-II Project subject to the 1994 Production Sharing Agreement between the Russian Federation and Sakhalin Energy. The annual production of LNG is expected to be 9.6M tonnes. The first LNG shipments are due to commence in September 2008.

 

GRAND ANIVA during sea trials