This year's last voyage on Northern Sea Route goes to sanctioned LNG terminal
The Christophe de Margerie, a 'shadow tanker,' has made port call at the Utrenny terminal in the Gydan Peninsula after a 6,000-kilometre-long voyage across the ice-covered Arctic route.
The 299-metre-long LNG carrier on December 19 arrived in Utrenny, the terminal that serves the Arctic LNG 2 project. The tanker had sailed from Kamchatka on Russia's Pacific coast and across the Northern Sea Route (NSR). Major parts of the voyage was made together with sister vessel Boris Vilkitsky.
There is thick sea ice along the Russian Arctic coast, but the two tankers nevertheless sailed without escort of a nuclear-powered icebreaker.
The voyage marks this year's last shipment on the NSR.
The Christophe de Margerie is Russia's first tanker of the Yamalmax-class. It was originally built for the Yamal LNG project, but has over the last years served first of all the Arctic LNG 2.
The Arctic LNG 2 is sanctioned by the US, UK and several other countries. Also the Christophe de Margerie is heavily sanctioned by the international community and is operating as a so-called 'shadow tanker.'
The tanker is one of the 'shadow vessels' that is shuttling between the Arctic LNG 2 and Chinese ports. Among the other tankers that are involved in the shipments of the sanctioned LNG are the Buran, the Iris, the Voskhod and the Zarya.
The Christophe de Margerie has ice classification Arc7, which enables it to break through sea ice up to two meter thick. The current ice situation in the Gulf of Ob is complicated and the Buran, an Arc4-class tanker, recently had to give up attempts to break through the sea ice to the Utrenny terminal.
It is not clear where the Christophe de Margerie will deliver its latest shipment of LNG. Last winter, the tanker drifted purposelessly in the Pechora Sea and the Kara Sea for more than five months.
