"Aleksey Kosygin" is breaking his way to Gydan
A brand new and Russian-built LNG carrier named after a Soviet Communist leader is making its maiden voyage through some of the harshest waters on the planet.
The Aleksey Kosygin is Russia's first domestically built tanker with ice classification Arc7. It set out from the Zvezda Yard, Bolshoi Kamen, in late December and by January 15 had made it through the Bering Strait and into the Chukchi Sea. On January 20, it was located in the Laptev Sea west of the New Siberian Islands.
There is a thick layer of sea-ice in the area. Although the tanker is designed for sailing in up to two-metre-thick sea ice, the Aleksey Kosygin is escorted by nuclear-powered icebreaker Arktika.
The 299-metre-long carrier is on its way to Gydan, where it is expected to load LNG at the Utrenny terminal.
For Novatek, the mid-winter voyage of the Aleksey Kosygin across the Northern Sea Route is seen as a victory. The company has been haunted by international sanctions ever since Russia launched its full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine.
A key part of the company's industrial activities in the Arctic are subjected to sanctions. That includes the Arctic LNG 2 project and all related activities.
The Aleksey Kosygin itself was added to US sanction lists more than a year before the yard completed its construction.
The carrier is the first in a projected fleet of 15 ships that is to serve the Arctic LNG 2 project. Another three carriers are under construction at the Zvezda Yard.
The Aleksey Kosygin is likely to join the Christophe de Margerie, a carrier that now shuttles between Gydan and the Ura Bay with sanctioned LNG.
Soviet nostalgia is increasingly evident in the Russian shipping industry. Two of the country's new icebreakers will be named respectively Stalingrad and Leningrad. The Aleksey Kosygin is named after the powerful Communist leader that for more than three decades held top posts in the Soviet Union.
“He was a man that gave a major contribution to the development of the Far East, all of the country, its economy and key industries, and he was a gifted organiser during the Great Patriotic War,” Russian dictator Vladimir Putin said in a speech delivered in front of the ship in September 2023.
