First LNG vessel to sail Russian Arctic Northern Sea Route arrives in France
Ob River, the first LNG vessel to sail through the Russian Arctic Northern Sea Route, arrived at France's Montoir terminal Saturday, according to data from Bentek Energy Tuesday, Platts reports.
The Ob River, previously known as Clean Power, has capacity to carry 3.1 Bcf of gas equivalent, or 63,668 mt of LNG.
It is currently chartered by Russia's Gazprom Marketing & Trading group while being operated by Dynagas, Bentek said. Bentek Energy is a unit of Platts.
Gazprom in early October said the Ob River is the first LNG vessel to sail through the Russian Arctic Northern Sea Route. The ship discharged a Qatari LNG cargo at the Mizushima terminal in western Japan on September 26, and sailed to South Korea for bunker fuel September 29 before embarking on the Northern Sea route, Bentek added.
The Northern Sea Route, which runs along the Russian Arctic Coast from Murmansk on the Barents Sea to the Pacific Ocean, is estimated to save up to 20 days for Atlantic cargoes destined for Japan or South Korea -- the world's biggest LNG consumers -- compared to the traditional route via the Mediterranean Sea, Suez Canal and Indian Ocean.
Shipping through the Arctic route -- a significant part of which is ice-bound -- has numerous difficulties that reduce its economic viability. The Ob River, built in 2007, has ice class and winterization equipment used in 2009-2011, when the ship was chartered out by Gazprom for winter operations to export LNG from the Gazprom-led offshore Sakhalin-2 project.
