Sovcomflot PJSC, Russia's largest shipping company, has received its first domestically built ice-class tanker as it expands the fleet of vessels that haul super-chilled gas year-round from the blacklisted Arctic LNG 2 project. According to a website statement from Rosneft PJSC, the Rosneft-led Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex in Russia's Far East transferred the Alexey Kosygin, the lead vessel in a series of advanced ice-class ships being built at the facility for Arctic LNG 2, to Sovcomflot on December 24.
The Alexey Kosygin, which has been sanctioned by the U.S., is critical to enabling the project above the Arctic Circle to ship cargoes of liquefied natural gas via the Northern Sea Route when ice thickens during autumn and winter navigation. From a supply chain perspective, the bulk of the tankers servicing Arctic LNG 2 are not ice-class and Western sanctions have left very little room to grow the fleet. The delivery of the Alexey Kosygin had originally been expected in early 2023, but restrictions on equipment supplies pushed the schedule back significantly.
Novatek PJSC-led Arctic LNG 2 is central to Russia's ambition to triple production of the super-chilled fuel by the end of the decade. Although that plan is under threat from international sanctions, China's decision to begin taking LNG from the plant could help revive the goal. The Asian nation began importing fuel from Arctic LNG 2 through its remote Beihai terminal in August, with about 20 cargoes offloaded from the Russian facility as of mid-December.
Even so, Arctic LNG 2 has had to cut output as winter ice complicates exports, and until now only one identified Russian shadow-fleet tanker of the advanced Arc-7 ice class was in service. From a supply chain perspective, the introduction of the Alexey Kosygin structurally strengthens the project's ability to deliver year-round LNG cargoes to Asia-Pacific buyers. Players with long-term offtake contracts such as JERA, CNPC and Sinopec will need to continually reassess secondary sanctions exposure on every voyage.
