Fresh questions are being asked about where three specialised ice-breaking LNG carriers among a first batch ordered for Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 project will be built.
The vessels, which are included in the first five Arc7 LNG carriers from a total order for 15 ships, were contracted at Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex in Russia’s Far East.
South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries has signed an agreement to build the hulls of the specialised ships but is inking individual deals on the vessels.
While progress on the first two hulls — the Sovcomflot-owned, 172,600-cbm pilot vessel Aleksey Kosygin and the Novatek-Sovcomflot joint venture Smart LNG’s Pyotr Stolypin — is described as “well underway”, Sovcomflot chief executive Igor Tonkovidov said last week that their planned 2023 deliveries will be delayed until 2024.
This chimes with the now later-than-planned start-up of the 19.8-million-tonnes-per-annum, Novatek-led Arctic 2 project’s first 6.6-mtpa production train, which has been set back until late 2023.
The Aleksey Kosygin hull arrived in October 2021 and was originally due for delivery in March 2023 with the Pyotr Stolypin to follow this year.
Little has been said of a third Arc7 hull for the LNG carrier Sergei Witte, which sources confirmed has arrived at Zvezda.
A fourth hull for the project remains at SHI’s Geoje Island shipyard.
Speculation is mounting about whether SHI may build this fourth vessel in South Korea or even if the third hull could return to the Korean yard for completion.
It is understood that work has yet to start on the construction of a planned fifth Arc7 hull at SHI.
Work on both the Arc7 LNG carriers and liquefaction project Arctic LNG 2 has been hampered by Western sanctions, which have restricted the supply of equipment and contractors from European and US-based companies.
For the LNG carriers, specialist cargo containment system designer GTT has pulled out of Russian business.
The French company said in its recently published annual report that its contract with Zvezda relating to the 15 LNG carriers was suspended on 8 January 2023.
GTT said: “... the project stakeholders are studying the procedures for continuing the construction of the LNG tanks of certain vessels in strict compliance with the sanctions.”
State nuclear agency Rosatom, which controls Zvezda, said earlier this year that it plans to develop its own design of ice-class LNG carriers that would be capable of operating year-round in the ice-challenged waters of the Northern Sea Route.
The 170,000-cbm so-called Arc8 vessels would be built at Zvezda and would not use any Western manufactured or designed components in their design, company officials said. The ships would have higher top speeds and ice-breaking capabilities than the current Arc7 design vessels.
