The first summer shipment of LNG is heading eastbound through the Arctic waters of the Northern Sea Route.
Eikland Energy data service iGIS/LNG said the 172,600-cbm Nikolay Urvantsev (built 2009) left Yamal LNG's Sabetta terminal and is heading to meet the waiting nuclear-powered ice breaker Yamal (built 1992) in the Vilkitsky Strait.
The vessel is currently scheduled to arrive in Sendai, Japan, on 7 July.
According to the data analyst, there is still significant ice cover along the route.
The US-based National Snow & Ice Data Centre said this month that stormy weather in May in the eastern Arctic helped spread the sea ice pack out. It added that as a result the decline in ice extent was slow.
2021 season opener
This is the first eastbound movement of an LNG carrier through the Arctic passage of the Northern Sea Route.
In 2020, Yamal LNG’s flagship vessel, the 172,600-cbm Christophe de Margerie (built 2017), left almost a month earlier in mid-May, as Russia trialled extending the navigable season for the eastbound journey on the Arctic route.
The Christophe de Margerie also made the latest ever winter sailing through the eastbound section of the Northern Sea Route.
In January and February, the Sovcomflot (SCF Group)-owned vessel, along with a second ship, the 172,600-cbm Nikolay Yevgenov (built 2019), completed pioneering voyages eastbound without ice breaker assistance, delivering Yamal LNG cargoes to China.
But the Nikolay Yevgenov sustained damage to one of its azipod propulsion units en route and took the long way home via the Suez Canal for repairs while the Christophe de Margerie (built 2017) made the return trip in ballast.
Russia wants to see the Northern Sea Route opened up for year-round navigation from 2024 as it grows its LNG exports and moves to send them east on shorter voyages than if they were exported via Suez.
The country is building two transshipment hubs in Murmansk in the west and Kamchatka to the east to maximise the use of its ice-breaking fleet of Arc7 LNG carriers on the ice-bound sections of the route.
Charterer Yamal Trade currently deploys a fleet of 15 Arc7 LNG vessels, with another 21 on order in Russia and South Korea.
