Russian energy company Novatek is looking at using two new sites where it can conduct ship-to-ship transfers in an effort to make the best use of its existing Arc vessels and non-ice-class LNG carrier fleet.
Reuters reported that it has seen a draft project document which identified a site for STS transfers near the Chosha Bay in the Barents Sea, which it said would be for Obsky Ammiak, a subsidiary of Novatek.
A second site in the east would be at Kresta Bay in the Gulf of Anadyr on the southern coast of the Chukotka Peninsula.
The sites would be used to transfer LNG to the existing 15 Arc7 LNG carriers which Novatek controls into non or lesser ice-class vessels.
According to the draft document, transfers of LNG and condensate will only happen when ship movement is not hindered by ice.
The Novatek paper detailed that this will allow for the loadings of 4.1m cbm of LNG and 1.4m cbm of gas condensate a year in each facility, the document showed.
The Russian gas company already performs LNG STS operations off Kildin Island in Russia and northern Norway.
Under its original plan, LNG was to be shipped from its Yamal LNG and Arctic LNG 2 plants into Russia’s two giant floating storage units which are sited near Murmansk in the west and off the Kamchatka Peninsula to the east.
Conventional LNG carriers could then be used to take cargoes from these FSUs for onward shipment.
But Western sanctions have hindered the construction and delivery of Russia’s next generation of 21 planned Arc7 LNG carriers and, instead, the Russian interests have built up a fleet of non-ice-class vessels to ship cargoes through Arctic waters.
Ice has now closed the Northern Sea Route for all but ice-breaking tonnage, limiting LNG exports eastbound.
