LNG

Two more Arc7 ice-class liquefied natural gas carriers are entering service to transport shipments produced at the Yamal liquefied natural gas plant in northern Siberia, operated by Russian natural gas company Novatek, taking the number in the Yamal fleet to 13 vessels.

Executives said the next two ships to join the fleet are the “Nikolay Urvantsev” and the “Vladimir Voronin” after they complete sea trials.

All the ships delivered so far have been built by Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering in South Korea and have capacities of between 170,000 cubic metres and 172,600 cubic metres.

The “Nikolay Urvantsev” is owned by the Japanese company Mitsui OSK Lines. Other vessels are owned or operated by a variety of companies, including Bermuda-based Teekay LNG, Greek shipping line Dynagas and Russia's Sovcomflot.

All but one of the tankers are named after Russian Arctic explorers or scientists.

The first Arc7 tanker, the “Christophe De Margerie”, is named after the late Chief Executive of French energy major Total who died in a plane crash near Moscow in 2014.

Total is a major investor in Novatek and in the Yamal plant.

The 11th completed vessel, the “Nikolay Yevgenov”, underwent sea trials in April and delivered its first cargo in early June.

A 14th vessel of the 15 on order, the “Yakov Gakkel”, is at the DSME yard and is also set to begin trials. The 15th ship is as yet unnamed.

The tankers have been delivering Yamal shipments since the facility began operations in December 2017.

The plant comprises three liquefaction Trains with a total nameplate capacity of 16.5 million tonnes per annum, or 5.5 MTPA per LNG train.

Yamal is dependent on the ice-breaker tankers to ship LNG from Arctic waters to Western Europe and Asia.

Novatek said it had asked DSME to speed up construction and delivery of the tankers after production at the LNG plant ramped up faster than expected.

Many of the carriers have conducted ship-to-ship LNG transfers to conventional carriers, particularly offshore Norway, though during the summer months they can traverse the Northern Sea Route eastwards to North Asian countries.

Other ships in the fleet include the “Georgiy Brusilov”, delivered in November 2018 and the “Boris Davidov” in December and they are operated by Dynagas.

Among the other ships in the Arc7 fleet are the “Boris Vilkitsky”, the “Fedor Litke”, the “Eduard Toll”, the “Vladimir Rusanov”, the “Rudolf Samoylovich” and the “Vladimir Vize”.