LNG

The Zvezda Shipyard in the Russian Far East is moving ahead into a new era with the first ever construction programme for liquefied natural gas carriers, ordered for the Arctic LNG II export project in northern Siberia.

Gaztransport and Technigaz, the French designer of liquefied natural gas maritime and onshore storage systems, has reived an order from the Korean shipyard Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering for equipping six ARC-7 ice-breaking LNG carriers after receiving previous orders in October from a Russian shipyard.

Gaztransport and Technigaz, the French designer of liquefied natural gas maritime and onshore storage systems, has received a second order from the Zvezda Shipyard in the Russian Far East for the tank designs of 10 ARC7 ice-breaking LNG carriers.

GTT said each vessel would offer a capacity of 172,600 cubic metres capacity and be fitted with the Mark III membrane containment system.

GTT technologies have been adapted for heavy environmental conditions, allowing LNC carriers to operate and navigate safely in ice-covered waters.

“These ARC7 vessels will contribute to the projects of the Russian LNG producer Novatek,” said GTT.

The 10 carriers are scheduled to be delivered between the second half of 2024 and the end of 2025.

“We are very pleased to work with Zvezda and look forward to continuing this partnership through this second order for 10 ARC7 ice-breaking LNG carriers,” said Philippe Berterottière, Chairman and Chief Executive of GTT.

The Zvezda complex is located at Bolshoi Kamen on the coast of the Sea of Japan and about 12 miles northeast of the city of Vladivostok.

Zvezda signed a technical assistance and license agreement with GTT in June 2020.

The new generation of carriers built by Zvezda will serve the new plant of Russian natural gas company Novatek and partners from France, China and Japan.

GTT said these unique LNG carriers are intended to transport cargoes from the project being developed on the Gydan Peninsula in northern Siberia.

Zvezda is owned by a consortium of Russian energy companies, including Rosneftegaz, Rosneft and the financial affiliate of Gazprom, Gazprombank.

The Russian shipbuilder obtained its GTT licence after a qualification process that began in September 2017, including the construction of a Mark III technology mock-up.

The shipyard plans to specialise in the construction of large-capacity vessels, ice-class ships, special vessels and marine equipment or offshore platforms.

Construction of LNG carriers is one of the priority directions of the production programme at the shipyard.

The first vessel for Arctic LNG II will be constructed at the Zvezda shipyard for Russian shipping line Sovcomflot and be financed by the Russian VEB Group, a development bank.
The first carrier and its sister ships will be capable of traversing the Northern Sea Route.

The newbuilds will be designed for year-round operations in the ice conditions of the Kara Sea and the Gulf of Ob and will be able to sail independently through ice over two metres thick.

Sovcomflot LNG carriers currently deliver cargoes for Yamal plant of Russian natural gas company Novatek and for Gazprom’s Sakhalin plant in the Russian Far East.

A Russian joint venture involving fleet owner Sovcomflot and natural gas company and LNG developer Novatek has signed contracts with a Russian bank and Zvezda Shipbuilding in the Far East to construct and lease 10 ice-breaking Arc-7 class LNG carriers.

The venture called Smart LNG has simultaneously signed long-term time-charter agreements for these 10 vessels with the Novatek-led Arctic LNG II project.

In total, contracts for 15 such vessels have now been signed, including shipbuilding, financing with Russian bank Veb.Rf Group, leases and time-charter contracts.

The Arctic LNG II project being developed with three gravity-based platforms and the estimated capital expenditure for the joint venture is now put at the equivalent of US$21.3 billion.

Arctic LNG will produce 19.8 MTPA of LNG as well as gas concentrate from the principal feed-gas resources, the Utrenneye gas field.

Novatek holds 60 percent of the Arctic LNG project and four other 10 percent stakes are shared between various shareholders.

The 10 percent holdings belong to French major Total, which is also a shareholder in the Novatek company, China National Petroleum Corp., China National Offshore Corp. and a Japanese investor group comprising Mitsui & Co. and the government institution, the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (Jogmec).

The contracts for the lead ship in the series were signed by Socomflot in October 2019 and the contracts for another four sister ships were signed by Smart LNG in January 2020.

Sovcomflot, also known as SCF, continues to implement its strategy, with the goal of steadily growing the company’s value through expanding its portfolio of long-term industrial shipping contracts.

“The company point as a special focus on operations in challenging climatic and ice conditions,” said Sovcomflot.

“With 10 long-term time charters added to this portfolio, SCF $20 billion in contracted future earning and receivables,” stated the Russian shipping line.

The vessels will be operated under the Russian Federation flag and the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (RS) will provide supervision during the construction of the vessel series.

The Zvezda complex is located at Bolshoi Kamen on the coast of the Sea of Japan and about 12 miles northeast of the city of Vladivostok.

The shipbuilder is owned by a consortium of Russian energy companies, including Rosneftegaz, Rosneft and the financial affiliate of Gazprom, Gazprombank.

“Shipbuilding and time charter contracts for 15 Arc7 LNG carriers, signed between 2019-2020, enable the Russian shipping community to play a role in transporting cargoes of strategic importance for the Russian economy, which are generated by large-scale energy projects in the Russian Arctic,” said Igor Tonkovidov, President and Chief Executive of Sovcomflot.

“These contracts will also help to further develop our national expertise in ice navigation and create over 850 new jobs for Russian seafarers, as all the 15 vessels will have Russian crews,” explained Tonkovidov.

“We are pleased to see that this new generation of Arctic LNG carriers, which will contribute significantly to growing the cargo traffic along the Northern Sea Route, was designed based on SCF’s long-standing experience of safely operating vessels in ice conditions,” stated the Sovcomflot CEO.

Sovcomflot bases its success in developing long-term partnerships with key customers, including Gazprom, Novatek, Lukoil, Royal Dutch Shell, French major Total, Exxon Neftegaz and Sakhalin Energy.

The Russian line’s fleet comprises 146 vessels with a total deadweight of 12.6 million tonnes, including ships owned through joint ventures. More than 80 vessels have an Ice classification.

Zvezda Shipbuilding in the Russian Far East has signed a technical assistance and license agreement with Gaztransport and Technigaz (GTT), the French designer of liquefied natural gas maritime and onshore storage systems, to build ice-breaking LNG carriers using GTT tanks.

Russian shipping line Sovcomflot has placed an order at Zvezda Shipbuilding for construction of three new generation product carriers powered by liquefied natural gas as their primary fuel.

Gaztransport and Technigaz (GTT), the French liquefied natural gas storage tank technology company, has signed a cooperation agreement with the new Zvezda shipyard complex in the Russian Far East where there are plans to build LNG carriers.