Gazprom Marketing & Trading, a subsidiary of Russian gas conglomerate Gazprom, has entered into a 10-year time-charter contract for its 2007-built liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker Ob River with Sakhalin Energy.

Ob River is currently under a short-term charter with Sakhalin Energy. In 2015 Sakhalin Energy announced a tender for the long-term charter of an ice-class LNG tanker starting from 2018, which was awarded to Gazprom Marketing & Trading.

Under the agreement, the vessel will continue transporting LNG from the Sakhalin-2 project’s terminal in the port of Prigorodnoye.

“This is a confirmation of serious work performed by Sakhalin Energy in the area of Russian specialists involvement into project work implementation. This contract is another evidence for it,”Sakhalin Energy said.

Equipped with membrane-type tanks with 149,700 cbm total capacity, the tanker is fully adapted for use at low temperatures and has a 1A FS ice class, which allows it to efficiently operate in ice conditions.