Russian gas giant Gazprom said it had delivered its first cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to China via the Northern Sea Route.
According to a statement by Gazprom, Sovcomflot’s 2015-built 170,200-cbm, Velikiy Novgorod, delivered the shipment on September 15 from the Portovaya mid-scale LNG complex in the Leningrad region to the Tangshan LNG import terminal in China.
State-owned PetroChina operates the Tangshan LNG import terminal in the port of Caofeidian in Hebei province.
This marks the first time Gazprom delivered an LNG cargo produced by the company via the NSR.
“The use of this route significantly reduces the time required for LNG shipments to be delivered to the Asia-Pacific region,” the company said.
This is the first LNG delivery via NSR for Gazprom but compatriot LNG producer Novatek regularly ships LNG via this route from its Yamal plant in the Russian Arctic.
However, the Portovaya mid-scale LNG plant is located near Russia’s Baltic Sea port of Vysotsk and close to the border with Finland.
Gazprom’s Portovaya complex is able to produce about 1.5 million tons of LNG per year from two trains.
The 170,000-cbm LNG carrier Pskov, owned by Sovcomflot, loaded the first cargo at the plant in September last year from the 138,107-cbm Portovyy, which serves as a floating storage unit for the facility.
DESFA’s Revithoussa LNG import facility in Greece received this first shipment from Portovaya LNG.
Moreover, the complex produced its first million tons of LNG in May this year.
The plant liquefies natural gas coming from the nearby Portovaya compressor station, part of Gazprom’s closed Nord Stream pipeline.
It has a 42,000-cbm LNG tank. From the tank, the facility sends LNG via a 4 kilometers long pipeline, one of the longest cryogenic pipelines in the world, to the FSU, Gazprom LNG Portovaya previously said.
Besides sending LNG to vessels, it also loads trucks for use as a fuel for transport in Saint Petersburg, the firm said.