Gazprom plans to opens a logistics department in Singapore and believes it has a promising future in trading in the Asia-Pacific region, Artur Tayt, the head of Gazprom Marketing and Trading's office in Singapore, said. "It is clear that there are more possibilities (in Asia), than we thought. We planned a few shipments a month (of liquified natural gas). I expect our offerings and geography will expand", Tayt said during the World Energy Summit, Reuters reports.
Gazprom opened an office in Singapore - it's first in the Asia-Pacific region - in March, to handle spot deliveries of LNG and hedging operations on oil contracts. The company has been delivering an average of two tankers of LNG a month from Sakhalin and has scheduled two vessels on a long term basis for the business. "The fleet will be small, but it will grow", Tayt said, "When shipments are already on their way, it is not hard to begin delivering crude and condensate".
In answering a question on whether Gazprom plans to ink more LNG delivery contracts, Tayt said, "We have received a few questions on the conditions of the deliveries, but we are keeping in mind that prices could still rise a bit". He said the company had hired two senior traders who would begin trading liquid petroleum gas and crude in July and September. The office plans to have about 30-34 employees in various jobs as time goes on.
