LNG

March 5 (LNGJ) – Russian cargoes are heading for Belgium while France is receiving a US shipment. A cargo was being discharged on March 5 by the “LNGships Empress” vessel with 174,250 cubic metres capacity at the Montoir-de-Bretagne import terminal in Western France, according to shipping data. The cargo was lifted on February 19 from the Sabine Pass export plant in Louisiana operated by Cheniere Energy.

   Two Russian cargoes are scheduled to arrive this week at the Belgian terminal at Zeebrugge. The “Nikolay Zubov” with 173,000 cubic metres of capacity loaded a cargo at the port of Sabetta on the Yamal Peninsula on February 29. Another delivery for Zeebrugge is on the “Vladimir Vize” with 172,6000 cubic metres capacity. That cargo was lifted at Sabetta on March 2.

June 1 (LNGJ) - The Belgian LNG import terminal at Zeebrugge is scheduled to receive two deliveries on June 5, one from Qatar and one from Russia, according io shipping data, The “Vladimir Vize” with 172,600 cubic metres capacity is scheduled to deliver a cargo from the Yamal LNG plant at Sabetta lifted on May 26. The “Al Wakrah” with 135,360 cubic metres capacity will deliver the Qatari cargo loaded at Ras Laffan on May 15.

May 4 (LNGJ) - Three cargoes are heading for Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK and are expected to berth in the next couple of days with cargoes from Russia, Algeria and the US respectively, according to shipping data.

   The LNG carrier “Vladimir Vize” with 172,600 cubic metres of capacity is scheduled to berth on May 5 at the Zeebrugge terminal in Belgium with a shipment from the Yamal plant in Siberia lifted on April 28. The “Berge Arzew” with 135,000 cubic metres capacity was scheduled to arrive on May 6 at the UK Isle of Grain terminal in Kent with a shipment from Algeria. The 135,425 cubic metres capacity vessel “Seapeak Catalunya” will discharge a cargo on May 5 at the Dutch Gate terminal in Rotterdam and lifted on April 22 from the Sabine Pass plant in Louisiana.

April 17 (LNGJ) - Belgium and the Netherlands are scheduled to receive a combined seven cargoes in the coming week. They include one delivered to Zeebrugge on April 19 from Russia onboard the 172,600 cubic metres capacity carrier “Vladimir Vize”. The cargo was lifted from the Sabetta terminal in Siberia on April 12. A second shipment is headed for Zeebrugge from Angola. The carrier “Cubal” with 154,950 cubic metres of capacity is scheduled to berth on April 22.

   The Dutch Gate terminal in Rotterdam will receive a US cargo on April 18 discharged from the 176,300 cubic metres capacity “Rioja Knutsen” and lifted on April 4 from Sabine Pass in Louisiana. The “Gaslog Glasgow” with 174,000 cubic metres capacity will deliver another Sabine Pass cargo to the Netherlands on April 19 when it berths at the new Dutch facility at Eemshaven.

Feb 15 (LNGJ) - Belgium and the Netherlands are scheduled to receive a combined six LNG cargoes through February 24. The 172,600 cubic metres capacity vessel “Vladimir Vize” will discharge a cargo on February 17 at the Zeebrugge terminal in Belgium from the Yamal plant in Arctic Russia lifted on February 11, according to shipping data. A second cargo will arrive at Zeebrugge from Qatar on February 19 on the 210,000 Q-Flex vessel “Al Ruwais”. A third cargo for Belgium will be unloaded on February 24 from the Qatari vessel “Al Deebel” with 143, 000 cubic metres of capacity.

   Three LNG shipments are also headed for the Dutch Gate terminal in Rotterdam. The “Grace Freesia” with 171,000 of capacity was berthing on February 15 with a US cargo from Sabine Pass in Louisiana. The “Vivit Arabia” with 171,000 cubic metres capacity will unload a US cargo on February 18 in Rotterdam from Calcasieu Pass in Louisiana. Then on February 24 the 180,000 cubic metres capacity carrier “Adriano Knutsen” will discharge a shipment from Corpus Christi LNG in Texas lifted on February 11, the data showed.

Shipments of LNG are continuing unabated on a small fleet of Arc-7 ice-class carriers from the Russian Yamal export plant in northern Siberia along the Northern Sea Route to North Asian destinations such as China and Taiwan.

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”.

Mitsui OSK Lines, the Japanese shipping company and LNG fleet owner, has held a naming ceremony in South Korea for an ice-breaking LNG carrier to deliver shipments to Asia from the Russian Yamal LNG export plant in Siberia.