The gas tanker Grand Elena, jointly owned by PAO Sovcomflot and the Japanese company NYK, has embarked on her hundredth voyage from the port of Prigorodnoye in Russia to Japan. The vessel is undertaking her latest shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) on behalf of Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd.
The LNG carrier is chartered to Sakhalin Energy under a long-term time charter agreement and is operated along with two other vessels of the same series, Grand Aniva and the Grand Mereya, as part of the Sakhalin-2 project.
Grand Elena was built in October 2007 at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. shipyard in Nagasaki, Japan. The gas tankers of this series have an ice class of 1С (Ice 2), which allows them to navigate in loose pack ice up to 40cm thick.
Grand Elena exports Russian LNG to markets in the Asia-Pacific Region. Her officers are Russian seafarers drawn from PAO Sovcomflot with professional training and experience in operating gas tankers of this class.