OREANDA-NEWS. The naming ceremony for two new LNG carriers, “Grand Elena” and “Grand Aniva”, was held on October 4, 2007 at the Mitsubishi shipyard in Nagasaki, Japan. Mrs. D. Finlayson (wife of Mr. Chris Finlayson, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sakhalin Energy) and Mrs. Natalya Belaya (wife of the Russian Ambassador to Japan), cut the ropes and named the ships in the traditional way with bottles of champagne, and the words “May god bless her and all who sail on her”.

The new vessels were named after Mrs. Elena Zolotareva – former top-manager of Sakhalin Energy Investment Company - and the Aniva Bay at Sakhalin Island, where the vessels loading terminal is located. The event was important for the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation Forum (APEC) countries, as it attracted many of Russia’s top officials, who also took part in the ceremony and senior delegates from Japan. From Russia, guests included the Russian Ambassador to Japan, Mr. Mikhail Bely as well as the Aide to the President of Russia and Chairman of Sovcomflot, Mr. Igor Shuvalov.

Both LNG vessels are of ice class, 145,000m3 capacity and have four Moss-type spherical tanks. The vessels have been 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, transporting LNG from the Prigorodnoye terminal near Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in Russia, to Japan, South Korea and Baja California (Mexico).

The Sakhalin-II project was begun in 1994 as the first Russian offshore LNG Project. On 18 April 2007, the shareholders of Sakhalin Energy signed a Sale and Purchase agreement with Gazprom, to trigger the transfer of shares in Sakhalin Energy. Under the new shareholding structure of Sakhalin Energy, 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 remains the operator of the Sakhalin-II Project, which will continue to be governed by the Production Sharing Agreement signed in 1994, between the Russian Federation and Sakhalin Energy. The annual production of LNG is expected to be 9.6 million tonnes. The first LNG shipments are due to start in September 2008.