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Gazprom utilizes replacement vessel to keep gas loadings

Russia's Gazprom is using a replacement vessel for shiptoship loadings (STS) of liquefied gas from its Portovaya LNG plant on the Baltic Sea while another ship is fixed, LSEG data showed on Monday.

The floating storage and regasification system (FSRU) Marshal Vasilevskiy is designed to provide Russia's Kaliningrad exclave, between Lithuania and Poland, and ensure its gas security in case of disturbance to pipeline materials from neighbouring nations.

According to LSEG information, the FSRU Marshal Vasilevskiy was on Monday loading LNG ship-to-ship near Kaliningrad onto the Cool Rover vessel, managed by Greece's Thenamaris LNG.

The previous LNG cargo received by Cool Rover was delivered in March from Portovaya to Spain.

Gazprom and Portovaya LNG did not react to a request for remark.

Ship-to-ship transfers are used for factors including cost reduction and logistics if ships are too big to go into a port or if a transfer would mean faster deliveries to customers, however they are more common for oil than for LNG.

LNG transfers are made complex by the requirement for preserving the gas in its liquid state that needs a temperature level of minus 163 Celsuis (minus 261.4 Fahrenheit).

Gazprom started using the FSRU Marshal Vasilevskiy for loading LNG ship-to-ship from Portovaya while among its ice-class tankers, Velikiy Novgorod, was repaired in the port of Shanghai.

It left the Shanghai shipyard on March 5 and is heading west around Africa without a specific destination, LSEG information shows.

(source: Reuters)