Sibur Voronezh LPG Tanker Arrives at Port of Ust-Luga, Russia

Sibur Voronezh LPG Tanker Arrives at Port of Ust-Luga

On 9 September, Sibur Voronezh arrived at the commercial seaport of Ust-Luga. This new gas carrier will be used by SIBUR for the scheduled year-round transportation of chilled liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from the company’s own terminal.

Sibur Voronezh has been chartered to SIBUR under a long-term agreement with Sovcomflot Group and was built at Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co. Ltd (South Korea). At the end of July she left the Korean shipyard for Russia, covering a distance of over 12,000 nautical miles in 40 days.

The gas carrier took on a test cargo at the new SIBUR terminal as part of start-up operations. Once the cargo had been loaded at the port of Ust-Luga, Sibur Voronezh departed for Sweden with a consignment of liquefied petroleum gas for SIBUR clients.

On 4 July, 2013, a naming ceremony was held for the new LPG carriers Sibur Voronezh and Sibur Tobol at Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co. Ltd. The new vessels received their names from the rivers Voronezh and Tobol that flow through the regions in which SIBUR operates. Sibur Tobol is due to arrive at the port of Ust-Luga in November this year.

The gas carriers were designed in collaboration with Sovcomflot Group experts using the latest advances in shipbuilding and with due regard to SIBUR requirements.

These ships were specially designed to be fitted with a ballast water management system – a compulsory requirement for vessels from the end of 2013. The structural design of the vessels includes a reinforced hull for year-round operations in the harsh climatic conditions of the North Atlantic. These robust gas carriers will have an active service life of 25 years, although this figure will significantly increase if they are used in normal climatic conditions. The design of these 1B ice class vessels (Ice3 in the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping) will allow them to operate effectively in the low temperatures of the Baltic Sea during their winter passages.

The new SIBUR gas carriers were also fitted with navigational equipment and software manufactured in Russia.

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LNG World News Staff, September 11, 2013; Image: SCF