The transfer of LNG shipments from Russia's second Arctic project, which came under direct US sanctions, continues. Another gas carrier entered the route, but without the ice class. In the East Siberian Sea, he was forced to stand up. Obviously, the tanker was not ordered icebreaker wiring, which costs millions of dollars.
"A Russian gas carrier without ice protection has changed course and is standing at the edge of the ice on the Northern Sea Route. The difficulties faced by the vessel highlight the challenges facing non—ice-class vessels in Arctic shipping, even in the summer months," gCaptain writes.
The publication points to the Arctic Metagas tanker, which left Murmansk on August 19 and headed for Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. According to AIS, the gas carrier plans to arrive there on September 10. However, obviously this will happen later.
The vessel can carry up to 80 million cubic meters of gas in the form of LNG and on August 29 was forced to stop passing through the Northern Sea Route in the East Siberian Sea.
"Even during this 'summer period', ice conditions can be unpredictable, and several Arctic LNG 2 vessels have recently encountered problems in the East Siberian Sea," Kjell Eikland, managing director of data provider Eikland Energy, told gCaptain.
The information of the publication is confirmed by the AIS data of the courts. The Arctic Metagas tanker has been maneuvering in one area of the East Siberian Sea on the Northern Sea Route for the fifth day.
Judging by the operational data of Glavsevmorput, ice begins in that area, which partially extends to the next Chukchi Sea.
The icebreaker "Siberia" operates in the area of the gas carrier, which also runs along the route of the gas carrier. A little further to the east, the Yamal icebreaker breaks through the ice. However, the gas carrier does not return to the route.
August is considered the most comfortable for the passage of vessels along the Northern Sea Route, but now there is no clean water on the entire route. And earlier, the Veliky Novgorod gas carrier had already found itself in a similar situation. In August 2023, an Ice2 ice-class tanker was sailing to China with LNG from the Portovaya Baltic complex. Then the ship also went on its own, but in The Kara Sea suddenly turned off the usual route and before the Vilkitsky Strait bypassed Russian Island from the south, making a detour. Further already in In the East Siberian Sea, Veliky Novgorod stopped running along the Northern Sea Route for a day and maneuvered until the icebreaker Siberia approached the vessel.
Whether something happened to the Arctic Metagas tanker is unknown. It is known that earlier even tankers of the highest ice class, which serve Yamal LNG, were damaged by ice. True, this happened outside the navigation season.
It is quite possible that now, if the vessel has not been damaged, the charterer will arrange for the vessel to be escorted by icebreakers, which he obviously tried to avoid earlier. It is expensive. So, judging by the calculations in the Glavsevmorput calculator, Arctic Metagas has two more zones of the Northern Sea Route to overcome and they will cost the charterer more than $ 600 thousand.
Earlier, four tankers have already passed the Northern Sea Route, which delivered liquefied gas to Asia from Arctic LNG — 2, which has been under US sanctions since November 2023. The first stage of this project was launched back in December 2023, however, due to sanctions against the project, floating storage facilities and ships, the first delivery to consumers was made only last week. Potential customers are afraid of secondary US sanctions, which called into question the future of the project with a capacity of 20 million tons per year.
As EADaily reported, on August 28, the Arctic Mulan gas carrier docked at the Beihai LNG terminal in Guangxi Province in southern China. He brought a batch of liquefied natural gas from Arctic LNG—2. The delivery of sanctioned gas was the first delivery of cargo to the end user from Russia's second Arctic project. Perhaps China is demonstrating its support for Russia and its ability to stand up to the United States. At the same time, Washington could unofficially approve the supplies as part of the peace process.
Earlier, Reuters reported that during the negotiations on Ukraine, Russia and the United States also discussed energy deals. Among them are the return of ExxonMobil to the Sakhalin—1 project, the sale of equipment for Arctic LNG — 2 and the purchase of Russian icebreakers.