LNG

Zvezda Shipbuilding in the Russian Far East has started steel-cutting for its latest Arc7 ice-class LNG carrier to serve the increasing Arctic LNG production plans being developed by natural gas company Novatek.

Two liquefied natural gas LNG carriers, the “Boris Davydov” and the “Rudolf Samoilovich” after safely completing the final leg of their East-West voyages on the Northern Sea Route which has become ice-bound earlier in the 2021-2022 winter season.

“Two LNG carriers Boris Davydov (in the Laptev Sea) and Rudolf Samoilovich (in the East Siberian Sea) continue their voyages to the port of Sabetta without ice-breaker support,” said the NSR information office.

The 172,000 cubic metres capacity “Boris Davydov” was due to berth on November 25 at the Novatek-operated Yamal LNG export plant at Sabetta in northern Siberia.

The vessel had previously delivered an LNG shipment to the Chinese port of Jiangsu, according to the Russian NSR data.

The “Rudolf Samoilovich” was also heading for Sabetta and is scheduled to arrive on November 27. The ship had last visited the Russian Far East port of Nakhodka, though had delivered a shipment of LNG to the Tangshan terminal in the Caofeidian Industrial Zone of Hebei province.

Speed

“At the time of the report, their speed was 16-18 knots,” added the NSR body.

However, another vessel, the “Mechanic Pustoshnyy”, is drifting in the Laptev Sea, and a second ship, the “Mikhail Somov”, is adrift in the western part of the Vilkitskiy Strait.

The report concluded that in the western part of the NSR, the icebreaker “Yamal” finished the escorting of the ships “Yurii Arshenevskiy” and “Vitus Bering” at Cape Zhelaniya.

The Yamal plant is the focus of NSR energy shipping activity. It has three liquefaction Trains on stream, each with nameplate capacity of 5.5 million tonnes per annum, as well as a smaller fourth Train with 900,000 tonnes of output, taking overall production to 17.4 MTPA.

All the LNG vessels serving Yamal LNG are around 172,000 cubic metres capacity and have ice-class Arc7 notation.

The Arc7 design allows ice-class LNG carriers to break through ice that is up to 2 metres thick.

The Russian shipbuilding company, Zvezda Shipbuilding, is building a series of 15 next-generation Arc7 ice-class LNG vessels for Russian natural gas company Novatek’s Arctic LNG II project under construction on the Gydan Peninsula in the same region as the Yamal facility.

These newbuild Arc7 LNG vessels have increased ice-breaking and manoeuvring characteristics compared with the existing fleet used by the Novatek-operated Yamal LNG project.

The 15 carriers will be registered and flagged under the Russian Federation and operated by the Russian crew when delivered. 

Cosco Shipping Energy Transportation, the biggest Chinese owner and operator of oil and gas vessels and with a growing number of over 40 liquefied natural gas carriers in its fleet, has approved an investment in three LNG carriers for the Russian Arctic LNG II project of Novatek and its partners.

Russian natural gas company Novatek, the nation’s largest liquefied natural gas developer in the Arctic region, has also been building up the customer base of its small-scale Cryogas-Vysotsk plant on the Baltic Coast while making progress on assembling a shipping fleet for the Arctic LNG II project under construction on the Gydan Peninsula of northern Siberia.

Zvezda Shipbuilding in the Russian Far East has held a steel-cutting ceremony for the first in a series of 15 ice-breaking LNG carriers ordered by the nation’s Sovcomflot shipping line to serve the Arctic LNG II export project being developed by natural gas company Novatek.

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, financing, lease, and time-charter contracts were signed last year by the four companies involved in ordering the 15 vessels, the first of which is scheduled for delivery in the first quarter of 2023.

Participants in the ceremony on November 20 included Yury Borisov, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Leonid Mikhelson, Chairman of Novatek, Igor Tonkovidov, President and Chief Executive of Sovcomflot and Sergey Tseluyko, Managing Director of Zvezda Shipbuilding and Daniil Algulyan, Deputy Chairman of VEB.RF, the Russian bank providing the financing.

“The steel-cutting for the lead vessel heralds the building of a new generation of ice-breaking LNG carriers,” said Sovcomflot (SCF).

“The design of these new vessels incorporates the many years of experience Sovcomflot has acquired in operating large vessels within challenging ice conditions,” it added.

“The engineering solutions selected for this class of vessel will enable increased speed and manoeuvrability when sailing in ice conditions, compared with ice-breaking LNG carriers of the previous generation,” explained the shipping line.

“This will, for the first time, allow year-round navigation in the eastern sector of the Russian Arctic, thereby expediting the implementation of national plans to boost cargo traffic along the Northern Sea Route,” it added.

All the vessels in the series will be assigned an Arc7 ice class.

The first LNG carrier of the series was ordered directly by SCF, while the other 14 vessels were ordered by Smart LNG, a joint venture of Sovcomflot and Novatek.

The shipbuilding process is being supervised by the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping.

During the ceremony, Deputy Federation Minister Borisov said that the start of work was preceded by a “tremendous effort” both in terms of organisation and production preparations.

“These vessels will significantly contribute to the development of cargo traffic along the Northern Sea Route, which is strategically important for Russia,” explained Borisov.

Each vessel will have capacity of more than 172,000 cubic metres and be 300 metres long and over 48 metres wide. Their power capacity is 45 megawatts, with each vessel equipped with three unique azimuth propulsion units.

“The start of construction of the first in this new generation of LNG carriers by Zevzda is a significant milestone for the Russian shipbuilding industry, which has never before constructed vessels with this level of engineering complexity,” said SCF CEO Tonkovidov.

“We are looking forward to continuing our close collaboration with our partners and are ready to further support the Russian civilian shipbuilding industry as part of the implementation of major energy projects,” stated the CEO.

All the 15 new LNG carriers will be registered under the Russian flag and will be operated by Russian crews.

The Arctic LNG II project is 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 almost 20 million tonnes per annum 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).

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.

Sovcomflot, the Russian shipping line with 16 liquefied natural gas carriers and an overall fleet of 147 vessels, returned to annual profit amid plans to expand its LNG carrier fleet and its number of LNG-powered tankers.

Sovcomflot, the Russian shipping line with 16 LNG carriers and an overall fleet of 147 vessels, said its revenues rose by 5.7 percent in the third quarter amid expectations more newbuilds will be ordered to deliver cargoes from the second Arctic LNG export plant proposed by Novatek and its international partners.

Sovcomflot Group, the Russian fleet owner, said it signed an agreement with ship fuel provider, Gazprom Neft Marine Bunker, to cooperate on bunkering operations for ships powered by liquefied natural gas.