Volga-Dnepr An-124 and IL-76 freighters ensure quick resumption of production at Sakhalin-2 plant

vVolga-Dnepr Airlines’ quick response operations for the oil&gas industry were called into action to ensure the urgent repair of a compressor at Russia’s only natural gas liquefaction plant, Sakhalin-2. The transportation project required operations using both An-124-100 and IL-76TD-90VD freighters from the airline’s fleet to move equipment from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Moscow to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on the Russian island of Sakhalin. Onboard the IL-76TD-90VD flight from Moscow was a 14-tonne capacity heavy-duty multi-wheel trailer measuring 6x3x1 metres that was used to deliver a new compressor to the Sakhalin-2 site. This coincided with the arrival of 30 tonnes of special repair equipment carried from Kuala Lumpur on one of Volga-Dnepr’s An-124 freighters to repair the failed compressor. “We had to organise this transportation and logistics solution quickly to ensure that the repair equipment needed to restore production was available at the Sakhalin-2 to minimise the plant’s downtime. Once again, thanks to the flawless quality of service offered by Volga-Dnepr Airlines we were able to resolve this urgent issue successfully in a highly time-efficient manner,” said Alexander Guzenko, CEO of TGK Logistics, which organised the flights with Volga-Dnepr. Sakhalin-2 commenced operation after being commissioned in 2009 and has the capacity to produce around 10 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per year.