LNG Carrier Completes Arctic Voyage to China in 18 Days, Four More En Route

By Malte Humpert (gCaptain) –

This year’s Arctic summer shipping season is off to a busy start. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) Carrier Eduard Toll completed an early-season eastbound voyage along Russia’s Northern Sea Route arriving in Xiuyu, China around 3 weeks after departing with cargo from the Yamal LNG project. It passed through the Arctic section of its voyage in under a week. 

The ice-capable vessel completed the majority of the still-icy route unassisted, except for sections of the East Siberian Sea where nuclear icebreaker Sibir escorted it through remnants of thicker first-year sea ice.

Sibir continued escorting additional LNG carriers traveling back and forth between the New Siberian archipelago and the Bering Strait.

Days after Eduard Toll, Sibir assisted LNG carrier Christophe de Margerie followed by the next carrier, Fedor Litke. A fourth and fifth LNG tanker Boris Davydov and Nikolay Zubov are currently en route through the Arctic.

Russia’s Northern Sea Route provides for significant distance savings to Asia, especially compared to the ongoing detour via the Cape of Good Hope due to instability in the Red Sea. Voyages from Northern Europe to East Asia via the southern tip of Africa take at least 6 weeks, compared to 18 days or so via the Arctic.

In addition to liquefied natural gas, Russia is expected to send dozens of shipments of crude oil via the Arctic. 

Three Gabon-flagged Aframax tankers, Korolev Prospect, Vernadsky Prospect, and Olympic Prospect, received permits for the Arctic from Russian authorities last week. Each vessel can carry up to 800,000 barrels of crude.  

Besides increasingly routine LNG shipments from Novatek’s Yamal LNG project, uncertainty continues when Russia’s largest LNG producer will begin exports from its sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 project.

A record-number of Arctic permits for LNG carriers, a total of 31 as of July 15, suggest the company is putting in place the logistics chain to begin deliveries this summer. Specific markets and customers remain uncertain due to Western sanctions affecting all aspects of the project though recent reporting indicates Novatek’s efforts to market its LNG to China’s domestic market. 

A number of LNG newbuilds have received permits for the route in recent weeks. 

In contrast to the usual practice of making the permit details publicly available for all vessels on the Northern Sea Route, the route’s administration has for the first time withheld information for a group of four LNG carriers: North Air, North Mountain, North Sky, and North Way. 

This development in combination with a recent ownership change from NYK and Sovcomflot to a Dubai-based entity has led to industry speculation that the vessels could become part of a LNG shadow fleet to carry product from Arctic LNG 2. 

The first of the four vessels, North Sky, is approaching Ob Bay where both unsanctioned Yamal LNG and sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 are located in relatively close proximity. 

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