Heavy-Lift Vessel Delivers Sanctioned LNG Technology to Russian Arctic

By Malte Humpert (gCaptain) –

Following a nearly three-month voyage Chinese heavy lift vessel Hunter Star delivered the final liquefaction module for Novatek’s Arctic LNG 2 facility to Russia. Russian gas company Novatek, the Arctic LNG 2 project itself, and the Belokamenka construction yard near Murmansk have all been sanctioned by the U.S. The transfer of technology used for liquefaction of natural gas has also been banned by the EU.

The vessel loaded the 14,000-ton module measuring more than 40 meters in height at the PengLai Jutal Offshore Engineering facility in early January. From Penglai in northeastern China Hunter Star traveled around the Cape of Good Hope in February and arrived in Murmansk over the weekend after a 16,000 nautical mile journey.

Hunter Star carried module TMS-005, the final element for the second train of the sanctioned Arctic  LNG 2 project. Following the withdrawal of American turbine maker Baker Hughes, Novatek was forced to redesign the module to accommodate Chinese turbines instead. The unit is responsible for power generation and will house all the electric components for the electric motors in adjacent modules TMS-003/004. 

Those units arrived at the Belokamenka yard in February aboard two ice-class heavy lift vessels Audax and Pugnax via the ice-covered waters of the Northern Sea Route. Even with the escort of two nuclear icebreakers the voyage took around 6 weeks, with a full month spent traveling 2,500 nautical miles through thick winter sea ice. 

Hunter Star is owned by Guangdong Nan Feng Shipping Company out of Hong Kong. This is the first time the vessel has delivered a module for Novatek’s project. As European operators GPO Heavylift and Boskalis have stepped away from providing their services following sanctions, Arctic LNG 2 has increasingly relied on Chinese providers of transport services. 

Novatek will spend the next six months integrating the final module onto a massive floating gravity-based platform measuring 400 meters long and 150 meters wide and weighing more than 640,000 tons.

Later this summer the company is expected to tow the platform to the Gydan peninsula 1,000 nautical miles away in what will be a repeat operation of the successful tow of the first production line in 2023. The platforms are among the heaviest man made objects to be moved over such a distance. 

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