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Switching of a part of goods traffic to tank containers allows resolving a problem of rolling stock shortage, shortening transportation time, escaping monopolized systems of storage and transshipment and improving significantly transportation economics.

As you know, the main LHG logistic links are production-transportation-wholesale market-retail market. Goods are transported in tank cars to a Russian port, then goods are carried to a European port by tanker and discharged into port storage tanks (with further moving into Euro tank cars) or into tank cars to be delivered to an end user.

Thus, the movement along the "links” is performed with multiple goods transfusions (in transshipment locations, at mode of transport change points or with change of railway track width), in consequence of which the loss of product due to evaporation occurs, costs grow and delivery time increases. Besides, due to limited capacity of transfusion stations located in ports, the detention of cars takes place. Consequently, costs increase once again and risk of fire and environmental hazard grows.

However, traditional plans of LHG transportation are firmly bound to the current infrastructure, i.e. to the mandatory availability of railway accesses or, with transportation by trucks, to limited product market of the nearest region. In the first case, one should bear in mind that product cannot be delivered directly to an end user from the process viewpoint, and in the second case, features of transportation process will limit the product output. A lot of gas/oil fields, as well as refineries and gas processing plants that have no possibility of shipment to rail transport, but have an opportunity to transport LHG by trucks in restricted amounts (related to location of product market) possess excess gas, which they must burn in flares.

At the same time, fundamentally new logistic plans using tank containers allow delivering excessive gas to customers "from-door-to-door” (eg to motor-vehicle gas refueling stations) from any point A to any point B without losses.

Tank container fulfills the task

Liquefied hydrocarbon gas transportation in tank containers fulfills a number of fundamental tasks of LHG logistics.

Firstly, the profit of manufacturers that are able to expand significantly sales geography and thus to increase sales volume is rather obvious.

Secondly, the tank container itself can be used both as storage and as a tank, which enables to increase the number of retail points.

Finally, LHG transportation in tank container allows excluding gas losses due to direct transshipment of tank containers from one mode of transport to another one. This circumstance is especially important for exporters and importers that encounter the need for transfusion product when changing railway track width and with transshipment to a ship. At the same time, special steel grade, of which tank container vessel is fabricated, ensures chemical and organoleptic properties of goods.

Railway rates for tank containers are slightly higher than those for tank cars, but if you takes into account that tank containers allow working without expenses for infrastructure and delivering goods to required point without gas filling stations, you may notice that goods end price will decrease by 40-50 % as compared to the transportation by truck and in tank cars. This is especially important, if you take into consideration that the majority of gas processing plants are situated in Extreme North areas that have no railways.

Practice examples

Practical example of a logistic plan with the use of tank containers is the following: LHG plant, as a rule, is located far away from large cities and has no railway infrastructure. A motor vehicle carries a tank container to the plant to fill it, then it carries the tank container to a railway terminal and there it is loaded onto a container platform. Then the tank container is shipped to a consignee. The consignee, in turn, transfers the tank container on a motor vehicle and carries it to a gas filling station.

Gas filling complex grows

Demand for liquefied hydrocarbon fuel in the world market grows two times faster than that for crude oil and tends to the continual increase both due to environmental requirement toughening operate already in Western Europe, and average annual growth rate for gas filling stations in Russian highways reaches 30 % per year.

According to our evaluations, the Russian policy aimed at the reorientation of gasoline from the internal market to export and at the replacement of gasoline with gas motor fuel is clearly noticeable. In any case, Gasprom has already developed the Target Integrated Program for Development of Gas Filling Network and Machinery Fleet to be run on Natural Gas for period of 2007-2015. According to the Program, the commissioning of new 200 automobile gas filling compressor stations and 90 movable refuelers in 47 constituent territories of the Russian Federation is provided. The implementation of the Program will allow doubling the number of gas filling stations by 2015, and consequently, this will increase the liquefied hydrocarbon gas transportation market.

Summarizing the above mentioned, it is necessary to say that the use of tank containers will assist to overcome the outlined heavy growth of the gas market. We foresee that the following trends will appear in the future: dramatic increase of the demand for raw materials, lack of valid infrastructure for their implementation, storage and transportation. Under such circumstances, the most optimistic solution will be the expensive use of tank containers.

Toplivny Rynok Journal