EURASIA Pushing the LNG East OE Watch Commentary: has a lot of political and economic fortunes riding on the successful operation of the . The addition of ice-breaker LNG carriers is helping that success. LNG does no good stored in the north waiting for open waters so the LNG carriers are now moving that energy to Chinese customers through thick ice. As the accompanying passage discusses, two Russian LNG carriers are moving 70,000 tons of LNG from the Yamal Peninsula to the Chinese port of Jiangdu through difficult ice conditions. The Russian gamble in the north seems to be gaining Vladimir Rusanov tanker. credibility and justifying long-term Source: Kees torn via Wikimedia, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:VLADIMIR_RUSANOV_(41717311641).jpg, CC BY- SA 2.0 planning. End OE Watch Commentary (Grau)

“Two powerful tankers are on their way from Sabetta in this year’s first eastbound voyages through the Northern Sea Route. On 28 June, the Vladimir Rusanov was breaking through thick ice in the Laptev Sea. The vessel, which is the newest of the five carriers currently serving the Yamal LNG project, will be this year’s first ship sailing through the eastern part of the Northern Sea Route. On board is about 70,000 tons of LNG from the Yamal Peninsula. Destination is the Chinese port of Jiangdu.”

Source: Atle Staalesen, “Arctic LNG carriers sail into deep ice with course for China: Two powerful tankers are on their way from Sabetta in this year’s first eastbound voyages through the Northern Sea Route,”Barents Sea Independent Observer, 29 June 2019. https:// thebarentsobserver.com/en/industry-and-energy/2018/06/arctic-lng-carriers-sail-deep-ice-course-china

Two powerful tankers are on their way from Sabetta in this year’s first eastbound voyages through the Northern Sea Route. On 28 June, the Vladimir Rusanov was breaking through thick ice in the Laptev Sea. The vessel, which is the newest of the five carriers currently serving the Yamal LNG project, will be this year’s first ship sailing through the eastern part of the Northern Sea Route. On board is about 70,000 tons of LNG from the Yamal Peninsula. Destination is the Chinese port of Jiangdu.... Ice conditions are complicated…. the whole western part of the Laptev Sea is covered by up to two-meter thick very-close drift ice. Parts of the eastern Laptev Sea are opening up, while the East Siberian Sea remains covered by fast ice and very close drift ice. The Vladimir Rusanov is owned jointly by Japanese company Mitsui and the China COSCO Shipping Corporation Limited. It came into service in March of this year. Not far behind is the Eduard Toll, another LNG carrier loaded with LNG from the Yamal. On 29 June, the tanker approached the Vilkitsky Strait, the waters separating the and the Laptev Sea. Ice conditions here are also complicated. Satellite data shows that the strait is covered by fast ice, a solid layer of ice. The Eduard Toll is owned by Canadian shipping company Teekay and came into service in January this year. Like the rest of the new Yamal tankers, it is built by the Daewoo Shipbuilding Marine Engineering (DSME) in Korea. The Eduard Toll has also set course for China…. The new Yamalmax class of carriers is able to break through 2.1 meters of thick ice….The ice situation in the Russian Arctic has been extraordinary difficult this spring and early summer. Rosatomflot, the company operating the Russian nuclear-powered , has had to prolong its period of ice-escorts in the Gulf of Ob and Gazprom Neft has ordered assistance from an additional powerful to cope with the situation around its Priraazlomnaya oil platform in the Pechora Sea.

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