Russian floating storage and regasification unit the Marshal Vasilevskiy (built 2018) has entered a Chinese shipyard and has been approved to sail through the Arctic waters of the Northern Sea Route.
Kpler data shows the 170,000-cbm, Arc4 ice-class FSRU, which is based at the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, loaded or topped up an existing cargo at Russia’s Portovaya LNG plant in May.
It then headed on a southbound voyage via the Cape of Good Hope to the Rudong LNG terminal in China.
After discharging its cargo, the Marshal Vasilevskiy entered a shipyard in Zhoushan on 5 July. Data provider iGIS/LNG said.
Russia’s main directorate for the Northern Sea Route, which is overseen by Rosatom, shows the Marshal Vasilevskiy was granted permission to transit the NSR in either direction between 5 August and 31 October.
The vessel is one of more than 700 approved for the Arctic passage this season.
It is unclear what work the specialised vessel is undergoing and whether this is simply a special survey dry-docking or if the ship is having additional work undertaken on its ice-class and winterisation capabilities.
The FSRU is controlled by Russian energy giant Gazprom and LNG industry players said it would be unlikely to be deployed for rival Novatek’s under-construction Arctic LNG 2 project, which has seen newbuilding tonnage for its cargoes sanctioned or delayed.
Many eyes are currently focused on Russia’s LNG shipping, with the expectation that a first cargo may soon be exported from Arctic LNG 2 — itself sanctioned by the US and UK. Several secondhand LNG carriers recently sold to Dubai-based entities are being closely tracked as candidates to ship Russian cargoes, with one already laden and, apparently, heading for Europe.
Russian LNG watchers are also monitoring the build-up of tugs at the facility building the gravity-based structures (GBS) that house Arctic LNG 2’s liquefaction trains amid the expectation that GBS2 will leave the construction site shortly for its tow to the project site on the Gydan Peninsula.
