September 7 - Moscow-based oil and gas industry specialist logistics provider JSC Transafe Logistics turned to two stalwarts of maindeck airfreight capacity this summer to move over 150 tonnes of vital oil, gas and power industry equipment.

Last month, a 39-tonne consignment was moved from Ostrava, Czech Republic to Ekaterinburg, Russia by JSC Transafe Logistics using an Ilyushin 76 cargo aircraft for the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean oil pipeline project.

The shipment consisted of two 19.5 tonne slide gate valves, twice the maximum of each on the onboard internal head cranes, which can handle 10 tonnes.

After arrival at Ekaterinburg, the consignment was transferred to railway wagons for final delivery to the destination site at Aldan. The entire oil pipeline project consists of several stages with the first stage of the project being completed in December 2009.

The utilization of the IL-76 follows the use of a Volga-Dnepr Airlines AN-124-100 chartered by Transafe Logistics in June to transport a 51-tonne equipment for an Omsk refinery project. The consignment contained 26 pieces, including two out-of-gauge crates containing a 3.3m, 29-tonne compressor and lube oil unit. Transafe Logistics representatives accompanied the consignment on board the aircraft on the route from Tokyo to Omsk. The entire transit time, from departure from Narita, Tokyo to off-loading at the Omsk facility via a transit point at Novosibirsk airport , totaled three days.

Another shipment in August which consisted of 58 tonnes of equipment for a power generation plant in Surgut required the utilization of another AN-124-100, the entire operation from loading at Sheremetyevo airport to on-site delivery toSurgutskaya GRES-2 plant took only two days.