August 26 Sovcomflot’s Aframax tanker “Korolev Prospect” set sail along the Northern Sea Route from Murmansk to China with a load of crude oil.
The vessels will be the first large-tonnage tanker to complete a NSC voyage using liquefied natural gas as bunker fuel. The transit along the NSR from Cape Zhelaniya to Cape Dezhnev is expected to take some 8 days, the average speed will be about 12 knots. It is not planned to use icebreakers.
The vessel will sail along the deep sea Tikhonov Route, which was first use for commercial shipping by another Sovcomflot-operated tanker, “Vladimir Tikhonov”, in 2011.