After Novatek JSC launches the Yamal-LNG project (liquefied natural gas at the South Tambeysk deposit) it plans to transport via the Northern Sea Route (NSR) about 16 million tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) a year, Novatek’s Board Chairman Leonid Michelson said in an interview with journalists at the port of Pevek (Chukotka), responding to the PortNews correspondent.
Mr. Michelson said that in 2011, without waiting for the Yamal project launch, the company expects to charter 6-8 tankers to carry its cargo along the northern shipping lane.
“Gazpromneft might be also interested in the cargo transportation on the Northern Sea Route, in connection with the joint program of development of the Yamal Peninsula," PortNews correspondent quotes Mr. Michelson as saying. He added the Yamal project could be started not before 2015.
PortNews IAA has reported earlier that the first tanker of Sovcomflot, the SCF Baltika, laden with 70,000 tons of gas condensate (owned by Novatek), following from Murmansk to China via the NSR, has called at Port Pevek in Chukotka. The SCF vessel has covered some 2,500 nautical miles in 11 days.
The SCF Baltica was escorted through the ice fields by the Atomflot’s Taimyr, Russia and 50 Years of Victory tankers. This part of the North Sea route passed through the Barents Sea, to the north of Cape Desire of Novaya (New) Zemlya Island, Vilkitsky Strait. The caravan passed Taimyr ice fields, through the Strait of Sannikov, the Laptev Sea, ice fields of the East Siberian Sea. The SCF Baltica tanker is expected to arrive at the port Ningbo (China) in the first quarter of this September.
The Baltica tanker’s test voyage is being implemented in close cooperation with the Ministry of Transport, the Rosatom, Corp. as well as in permanent contact with the HQ of naval operations agency, which monitored the weather and ice environment, coordinated the Atomflot icebreakers operation along the Route.