Novatek ships first LNG cargos to China

Novatek has shipped its first cargos of LNG from the Yamal LNG project to China via the Northern Sea Route. The LNG tankers Vladimir Rusanov and Eduard Toll took just 19 days to sail from Sabetta, through the Northern Sea Route, to the Chinese port of Jiangsu Rudong. This compares to the 35 days for the traditional eastern route via the Suez Canal and the Strait of Malacca.

‘This voyage begins a new era of Russian LNG shipments to meet the growing natural gas demands of the Asian-Pacific markets using the Northern Sea Route of the Arctic Ocean,’ said Leonid Mickhelson, Chairman of Novatek’s Management Board. ‘The Northern Sea Route ensures shorter transportation time and lower costs, which plays a key role in developing our hydrocarbon fields on the Yamal and Gydan peninsulas. Our vast high-quality, conventional natural gas resource base combined with low capital intensity and operation and transportation costs positions Novatek’s LNG projects among the most competitive projects globally.Utilising the Northern Sea Route as a viable transportation route contributes to the development of the Northern regions and is very important for our country’s economic development.’

Yamal LNG will utilise a fleet of 15 Arc7 ice-class LNG carriers with cargo capacity over 170,000 cm each to transport LNG to key consuming regions.