OREANDA-NEWS. From 6-8 June 2008 the Sovcomflot Group of Companies and Gazprom participated in the exhibition arranged as part of the 12th International Economic Forum held in St. Petersburg.

Sovcomflot, one of the world’s leading energy transporters, contributed to the Gazprom exhibit by demonstrating an alternative to LNG transportation by pipeline – through the liquefaction of natural gas and its subsequent carriage by sea.

The companies’ exhibit included a model of Grand Elena – a Sovcomflot vessel designed for shipping LNG from Russia’s first liquefied natural gas project (Sakhalin-2). The stand also included a model of a gas tanker which will export LNG from the Shtokman oil field (Barents Sea).

Sovcomflot Group is one of Russia’s largest infrastructural enterprises and one of the five largest shipping companies in the world. The fleet comprises 126 vessels with a total deadweight of 8.7 million tonnes. The Group has a new-building order book of 31 vessels, with an aggregate deadweight (dwt) of 2.8m tonnes. The average age of vessel within Sovcomflot’s tanker fleet is some six years (the world average age is 12 years). The Sovcomflot Group is the global leader within the product carrier and the Aframax market segments, as well as in ice-class LNG tankers and Arctic shuttle tankers. These market segments are the most in demand for Russia’s foreign trade.