Gazprom needs 20 Shtokman LNG tankers

Russia’s Gazprom may call a tender for up to 20 LNG tankers in early 2008 to help it ship LNG from the huge Shtokman field. Andrei Fomichyov, head of St. Petersburg’s North Shipyard company, said that Gazprom had informed companies that might take part in the tender that each tanker should have a deadweight of 80,000-100,000 tonnes.

Gazprom needs the tankers to carry LNG to Europe and the United States from its $15 billion Shtokman project in Russia’s Barents Sea. North Shipyard, controlled by private bank MezhPromBank, would be able to build the tankers only after it expands capacity in the next few years. Gazprom, the world’s largest gas company and supplier of a quarter of Europe’s gas needs, teamed up for the project in July with France’s Total which will get a 25% stake in Shtokman. The project in the Barents Sea is expected to start pumping 23-24 billion cubic metres of natural gas a year by 2013, while LNG deliveries are seen starting in 2014.