Russian Zvezda yard has started building another ice-class Arc7 carrier that will serve the Novatek-operated Arctic LNG 2 project.
The yard held a steel-cutting ceremony on December 24 for the sixth carrier out of fifteen on order, it said in a statement.
Zvezda will deliver this 172,600-cbm vessel in 2024.
To remind, Zvezda started to work on the first vessel in November last year. Russia’s largest shipping firm Sovcomflot ordered this vessel directly at the compatriot yard.
Novatek, Sovcomflot and VEB.RF finalized the construction and charter deals for the other 14 vessels with Zvezda in September last year.
Additionally, Arctic LNG 2 entered into a charter deal for the vessels with SMART LNG, a venture consisting of Novatek and Sovcomflot.
Zvezda is building all of these vessels in a partnership with South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries that provides technological support.
The LNG carriers will operate under the Russian flag and they will be 300 meters long but also 48.8 meters wide, and feature GTT’s Mark III membrane containment system.
In addition, the propulsion system includes three azimuth units with a total capacity of 45 MW.
Arctic LNG 2 to start producing LNG from first train in 2023
The construction of these LNG carriers will ensure year-round transport of LNG along the Northern Sea Route to the Asia-Pacific region.
The Arctic 2 LNG project located on the Gydan peninsula includes the construction of three LNG trains with a capacity of 6.6 mtpa, each, using gravity-based structure platforms.
Novatek expects to launch the first LNG train in 2023, with trains 2 and 3 to follow in 2024 and 2025, respectively.
Besides operator Novatek, the project partners include TotalEnergies, CNPC, CNOOC, and the consortium of Mitsui and JOGMEC.