A pair of LNG carriers looks set to make new Arctic history as the first gas ships to venture into the icy waters of the Northern Sea Route (NSR) in January.
Kpler ship tracking data shows Sovcomflot (SCF Group)’s 172,400-cbm Christophe de Margerie (built 2017) loaded a cargo at Yamal LNG’s Sabetta terminal and left the facility on Monday.
The ship is signalling that it is due to arrive in Dalian, China, on 26 January.
The sistership Nicolay Zubov (built 2019) is shown heading west after discharging in Dalian on 24 December.
The vessel, which is owned by Dynagas and its partners, is currently due to arrive at the Yamal LNG terminal of Sabetta on 16 January.
It is unclear if either ship is moving with ice breaker assistance.
Both vessels, which are part of Yamal Trade’s 15-ship LNG carrier fleet, are capable of breaking ice of up to 2.1 metres in thickness.
Christmas cracker
Russia is celebrating its Christmas and New Year holidays this week.
Senior officials working with the LNG carriers have said Russia plans to trial the NSR with LNG shipments this winter. The move is seen as a step towards the country’s plan to see the route open for year-round shipments from 2024.
Speaking in August during a meeting of the NSR Public Council, which he chairs, Sovcomflot non-executive chairman Sergey Frank said the shipowner, together with nuclear agency Rosatom and gas producer Novatek, is planning a late voyage across the Arctic route in February.
During the same meeting, Dmitry Lobusov — the master of the nuclear powered ice breaker 50 Let Pobedy — said there are plans to extend the navigation period even further in 2021, with experimental voyages in January and February.
"It will be night time, very different lighting conditions, and very different ice conditions."
Ice breaker muscle
Gas producer Novatek said last month that it planned to send an LNG cargo through the NSR with the assistance of Russia's newly commissioned nuclear-powered, 28,500-gt ice breaker newbuilding Arktika.
Chief financial officer and deputy chairman of the management board Mark Gvetvay said taking the NSR cuts Novatek’s distance to its Asian customers to just 18 days compared with up to 38 days if vessels took the Suez Canal route.
This year Novatek shifted its LNG transshipment operations to a site off Kildin Island to the north of Murmansk as it boosts efforts to maximise the use of its Arc7 fleet in potentially ice-bound waters.
Two 360,000-cbm floating storage unit units are currently under construction to scale up such operations.
The first of these will be based near Murmansk at the western end of the NSR from 2022 with the second to be positioned off Kamchatka at the eastern end a year later.
The installation of these FSUs is designed to dovetail with the start-up of Novatek’s second liquefaction project, the 19.8 million tonnes per annum Arctic LNG 2 in 2023.
This is in addition to the existing now four-train Yamal LNG, which has recently boosted its nameplate capacity to 17.4 mtpa.
