Russian Zvezda shipyard has held a keel-laying ceremony for the first out of fifteen ice-class Arc7 carriers that will serve Novatek’s Arctic LNG 2 export project.
Russia’s largest shipping firm Sovcomflot has ordered this vessel directly at Zvezda while it owns the other 14 vessels together with Novatek as part of the SMART LNG joint venture.
Following delivery in 2023-2025, all of these 172,000-cbm vessels will operate under long-term time-charter contracts with Arctic LNG 2.
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 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.