Ust-Luga, 9 September 2013. SIBUR announces the arrival of its first new gas carrier, Sibur Voronezh, at Ust-Luga seaport. The vessel will ship cooled liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from the company's Baltic Sea terminal on a regular and year-round basis.

SIBUR will operate the carrier under a long-term charter agreement with Sovcomflot Group. The carrier was built by Korea-based Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co. Ltd. The ship has already covered 12,000 nautical miles in 40 days on its journey from the Korean shipyard, where it set-off for Ust-Luga in late July.

The gas carrier is moored for test loading at SIBUR's new terminal as part of its start-up and commissioning programme. Once loading in Ust-Luga seaport has been completed, the carrier will head for Sweden on an LPG delivery.

A naming ceremony for Sibur Voronezh and SIBUR’s other new LPG carrier, Sibur Tobol, took place at Hyundai Mipo Dockyard’s shipyard on 4 July 2013. The gas carriers were named after the Russian Voronezh and Tobol rivers which flow through regions where SIBUR has its operations. Sibur Tobol, is expected to arrive at Ust-Luga in November 2013.

Both gas carriers were designed to SIBUR's specific requirements using the latest shipbuilding technology and in partnership with experts from Sovcomflot Group.

The ships are designed with ballast water treatment systems which will be compulsory for all vessels from the end of 2013. Their reinforced hulls will enable them to operate in harsh North Atlantic conditions with an active service life of 25 years. Operating in normal climatic conditions the ships would last even longer. Both ships are of 1B ice class (Ice3 in the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping), which will allow them to operate effectively in low Baltic Sea temperatures during their winter passages.

The vessels are fitted with navigation instruments and software from Russian manufacturers.

Technical specifications of the vessels:

Overall length  – 159 m
Breadth – 25.60 m
Depth – 16.40 m
Moulded draught – 10.90 m
DWT – 22,760 tonnes
Main engine output – 7,780 kW

Additional information:

SIBUR (www.sibur.com) is a uniquely positioned vertically integrated gas processing and petrochemicals company. SIBUR owns and operates Russia’s largest gas processing business in terms of associated petroleum gas processing volumes, and is a leader in the Russian petrochemicals industry.

As of 31 March 2013, SIBUR operated 27 production sites across Russia, had over 1,500 large customers operating in the energy, automotive, construction, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), chemical and other industries in approximately 60 countries and employed over 30,000 personnel.

SIBUR's Ust-Luga terminal is the largest in the CIS and the first in Northwest Russia to tranship LPG. The terminal is capable of handling up to 1.5 million tonnes of LPG and up to 2.5 million tonnes of light oils each year. The terminal’s distinguishing feature is its isothermal LPG storage tanks and its compatibility with almost all existing vessels, including refrigerated ships. The cooling process enables liquefied gas to be transported in large shipments; a refrigerated vessel using cooled LPG can carry up to ten times that of pressurised gas carriers. The terminal’s location offers excellent access to the Northwest European markets.

Sovcomflot Group (SCF) is Russia’s largest shipping company. It is a world leader in the maritime transportation of hydrocarbons and provides support for shelf exploration and oil & gas production. The SCF fleet (owned and chartered) includes 160 vessels with a combined deadweight of over 12 million tonnes. It specialises in the transportation of hydrocarbons from areas with challenging icy conditions and a third of the fleet’s vessels have a high ice class. Sovcomflot supports large-scale offshore energy projects in Russia and the rest of the world, including: Sakhalin-I, Sakhalin-II, Varandey, Tangguh, Escobar, and Peregrino. The company is registered in Saint-Petersburg and has representative offices in: Moscow; Novorossiysk; Murmansk; Vladivostok; London; Limassol; Madrid; Singapore and Dubai. www.scf-group.ru