Russia’s shipping firm Sovcomflot and Gazprom Neft, a unit of gas giant Gazprom, have completed what they say is the first-ever ship-to-ship LNG bunkering operation in Russia.
Gazprom Neft’s 5,800-cbm ice-class LNG bunkering vessel, Dmitry Mendeleev, supplied LNG to Sovcomflot’s dual-fuel crude oil tanker, Korolev Prospect, in the Baltic port of Ust-Luga, according to a statement by Sovcomflot issued on Friday.
Russia’s first LNG bunkering vessel delivered about 1,432 cbm of LNG to the 2019-built tanker during the operation which lasted about four hours, Sovcomflot said.
Sovcomflot noted that that the two firms signed a cooperation deal back in September 2021 to work on several fuels, including LNG, as part of plans to slash shipping emissions in Russia.
To remind, Keppel Offshore & Marine delivered Russia’s first LNG bunkering vessel, Dmitry Mendeleev, in August last year.
Gazprom Neft previously said the vessel would provide LNG via ship-to-ship transfers throughout the Baltic Sea.
These include clients at major ports in St Petersburg, Ust-Luga, Primorsk but also elsewhere, it said.