Russian Zvezda shipyard has held a keel-laying ceremony for the third out of fifteen ice-class Arc7 carriers that will serve Novatek’s Arctic LNG 2 export project.
The yard said in a statement it held the ceremony on December 10 for the 172,600-cbm LNG carrier Sergei Witte. Zvezda should complete this vessel in 2023.
This is the second LNG carrier in a batch of 14 vessels Sovcomflot had ordered together with independent LNG producer Novatek as part of the SMART LNG joint venture.
To remind, Zvezda held a keel-laying ceremony for the first vessel in June but Sovcomflot ordered this vessel directly at Zvezda. It held the same ceremony for the second vessel in August as well.
Also, Zvezda is building all of these vessels in a partnership with South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries that provides technological support.
All of 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.
First Arctic LNG 2 train to start ops 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.