First one million ton of LNG from Sabetta

It was either the «Eduard Toll» or the «Boris Vilkitsky» which took on board the millionth ton of liquified gas. Data from the Northern Sea Route Administration show that both vessels where in the Gulf of Ob at the time of the press release from Yamal LNG.

According to the company, a joint venture of project partners Novatek, Total, CNPC and the Silk Road Fund, a total of 14 shiploads of LNG have now been handled at Sabetta, the project terminal.

The ships can carry up to 74,000 tons of liquified natural gas. They are part of a quickly growing fleet of tankers built for the Arctic project.

So far, a total of four carriers are shuttling to and from Sabetta. And a fifth vessel is just around the corner.

The “Vladimir Rusanov” is now undergoing the last ice testing and is expected to load LNG at Sabetta in late March. The ship was early this week located near Dikson, the town on the Kara Sea coast, data from ship tracking service Marine Traffic show.

The tanker was jointly ordered by Japanese company Mitsui and the China COSCO Shipping Corporation Ltd, and is the first of three new vessels jointly operated as part of the Yamal LNG project.

A total of 15 ice-class tankers of the kind will ultimately be built for the project. Only one of them - the «Christophe de Margerie» - is Russian-owned. None of the ships will carry Russian flag.

Check out shipping company Teekay’s timelapse from the voyage of “Eduard Toll” across the Northern Sea Route

The tankers have ice-protection level Arc7 and are capable to autonomously break through 2,1 meter of ice. They have an engine power of 45 MW, which is «comparable with a nuclear powered icebreaker», Novatek says.

The first train of the Yamal LNG has an annual production capacity of 5,5 million tons. Total annual production will amount to 16,5 million tons when the third production train comes online.

The Yamal LNG was launched in early December 2017.