Arctic LNG 2, a joint venture of Russia’s gas major Novatek, has entered into long-term charter agreements on 14 Arc7 ice-class LNG tankers with SMART LNG, a joint venture between Novatek and Sovcomflot, Novatek has reported. The vessels are to be built at the Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex in the Russian Far East.
SMART LNG in its turn has signed contracts with VEB.RF Group and Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex to construct and lease 10 icebreaking Arc7 LNG tankers. The contracts for the lead ship in the series were signed by SCF Group in October 2019, and the contracts for another four sister ships were signed by SMART LNG in January 2020, Sovcomflot reminded.
The vessels will be operated under the Russian flag. The Russian Maritime Register of Shipping will provide supervision during the construction of the vessel series. According to Igor Tonkovidov, President and CEO of SCF Group, the contracts will help to create over 850 new jobs for Russian seafarers, as all the 15 vessels will have Russian crews.
The Arctic LNG 2 project envisages constructing three LNG liquefaction trains of 6.6 mn tons per annum each, as well as cumulative gas condensate production capacity of 1.6 mn tons per annum. The total LNG capacity of the three liquefaction trains will be 19.8 mn tons. The project utilizes an innovative construction concept using gravity-based structure (GBS) platforms to reduce overall capital cost and minimize the Project’s environmental footprint in the Arctic zone of Russia.
The project’s participants are: Novatek (60%), TOTAL (10%), CNPC (10%), CNOOC (10%) and the consortium of Mitsui and JOGMEC (10%).