OREANDA-NEWS. June 25, 2009. Headed by Alexander Ananenkov, Deputy Chairman of Gazprom Management Committee, the Company’s delegation continues its business trip to Saint Petersburg.

As part of the trip a visiting meeting of the Coordinating Committee for liquefied natural gas (LNG) and compressed natural gas (CNG) production and marine transportation took place under the chairmanship of Alexander Ananenkov, Deputy Chairman of Gazprom Management Committee, Head of the Coordinating Committee.

Taking part in the meeting were Oleg Aksyutin, Member of the Management Committee – Head of the Gas Transportation, Underground Storage and Utilization Department, Yaroslav Golko, Member of the Management Committee – Head of the Investment and Construction Department, Vasily Podyuk, Member of the Management Committee – Head of the Gas, Gas Condensate and Oil Production Department, as well as heads and specialists from Gazprom specialized subdivisions and subsidiary companies – Gazprom dobycha shelf,  Gazprom export, Gazflot, Giprospetsgaz, Shtokman Development AG, Gazprom VNIIGAZ and TsKBN of Gazprom.

The domestic machine-building, shipbuilding and research enterprises were represented by heads and specialists from Volgogradneftemash Geliymash Science and Production Association, Cryogenmash, United Shipbuilding Corporation, Admiralty Shipyards, Amur Shipbuilding Plant, Baltiysky Zavod, Vyborg Shipyard, Zvezdochka Shiprepairing Center, Severnoye Machine-Building Enterprise (Sevmash), Severnaya Verf, Power Machines, Central Economics and Mathematics Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, Krylov Shipbuilding Research Institute etc.

The meeting addressed Gazprom’s strategic plans relevant to LNG and CNG production, including in the Far East of Russia as well as readiness of domestic enterprises to supply the equipment necessary for LNG and CNG production and marine transportation in the required volumes.

It was noted that the capabilities of Russian shipbuilders in terms of modern methane carriers production were yet unable to meet Gazprom’s demands

“Comprehensive practices prove that the most efficient marine transportation of LNG is ensured by carriers with the storage capacity exceeding 200 thousand cubic meters. By now, Russian enterprises are unable to produce tankers with such parameters. To achieve this goal they have to re-construct their production capacities.

Reduction of foreign components utilization during vessels and LNG plants production and their replacement by the domestic analogues is another important task.

However, Gazprom is ready to order not only tankers and auxiliary vessels from domestic enterprises, but also pipes, stop valves, gas liquefaction equipment etc. when implementing the strategic plans on LNG production. Russian companies are facing the task of turning out, within the shortest time possible, LNG production and transportation equipment meeting Gazprom’s demands. We should make sure that as many Russian enterprises (Gazprom’s current and potential suppliers) as possible could manage this problem. It is very essential to develop the Russian technology for LNG production over the next few years,” stated Alexander Ananenkov.

Based on the meeting results the Committee gave assignments to coordinate the efforts of Russian producers in expanding and upgrading production for the purpose of increasing the share of high-tech domestic equipment and spare parts in ready-made products meeting Gazprom requirements.