The Gazprom headquarters hosted today a working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Company's Management Committee and Sergey Frank, Director General of Sovcomflot.

The parties discussed the interaction within the Prirazlomnoye field development, including the arrangement of oil transportation, and the current state of the global liquefied natural gas (LNG) market.

The meeting also highlighted that the importance of LNG supplies to Asia-Pacific markets via the Northern Sea Route had increased.

Alexey Miller and Sergey Frank discussed in details the test shipments via this route to be arranged in the nearest future.

“LNG production development is an absolute priority as compared to pipeline gas export to Asia-Pacific markets.

For instance, by supplying Russian LNG via the Northern Sea Route we will significantly reduce transportation costs and make this product highly competitive in these target Asian markets,” said Alexey Miller.

Background

In June 2011 Gazprom Global LNG (the company focused on LNG marketing and marine transportation, and being in charge of the global LNG strategy implementation by Gazprom) and Sovcomflot signed the long-term lease agreement (for the period of no less than 15 years) for two new ice class LNG carriers with cargo capacity of some 170 thousand cubic meters. The vessels can be used for cargo transportation between any of the existing LNG terminals including year round LNG shipping from the Sakhalin II and Shtokman projects.

In June 2010 Gazprom and Sovcomflot signed the Cooperation Agreement on marine transportation of the Shtokman field LNG. The document envisages interaction of the companies in developing the LNG transportation logistic schemes, determining the appropriate specifications for gas carriers and configuring the fleet required for the Shtokman project implementation.

Sovcomflot Group is one of the world's leading shipping companies focused on oil products and LNG transportation. The fleet comprises 156 vessels with the total deadweight of some 11.8 million tons. The company is registered in Saint Petersburg with representative offices in Moscow, Novorossiysk, Murmansk, Vladivostok, London, Limassol, Madrid and Singapore.