Sovcomflot (SCF), Russia’s state owned shipping company, has estimated that the Gazprom-led Shtokman project to produce LNG from a Barents Sea field almost 600 km offshore may require a $4 billion fleet to transport the fuel.
“The Shtokman project may require 20 tankers, which in total will cost $4 billion”, senior executive vice president of SCF Yevgeny Abrosov said yesterday at the Sakhalin 2011 Oil and Gas Conference in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia.
Russia’s largest shipper is seeking to open an Arctic Sea lane to Asia for large-scale commercial use during a five-month navigable season. SCF has reduced the time to navigate the passage by one day to 7.3 days in test runs this year, Ambrosov said.
Novatek, Russia’s second-largest gas producer, had tested the route with cargoes of condensate before building a plant to produce LNG on the Yamal Peninsula. Rosneft, Russia’s largest oil producer, and Glencore International, the world’s largest commodities trader, have also shown interest in the route, Ambrosov said.
Novatek’s Arctic Yamal LNG project, in which Total is a partner, may be the world’s most complex undertaking of its kind, Ambrosov said.
“We are making decisions along the whole transport component of this project and have arrived at a model of possibly using a gas tanker with capacity of about 170,000 cubic metres and ice class of Arc-7, which should operate year-round and be capable of breaking ice 2 m thick. It will be comparable to nuclear icebreakers,” Ambrosov added.
SCF plans to triple volumes of oil products it ships to 150 million tons in 2014, Ambrosov said. The tanker market continues to be “very tough,” he said.
SCF’s investment programme for strategic development in the period from 2011 to 2017 “differs from previous programmes in that we have decided that development of the ice-class fleet and expansion of our participation in projects related to Sakhalin and Arctic projects would be more effective for us. Considering the demands of the Arctic shelf, we are already gradually updating our fleet,” Ambrosov said.
Russia has two main shipping companies, SCF and Primorsk, operating seven LNG tankers. Two additional tankers ordered by SCF are being constructed by STX Shipbuilding in South Korea together with Russian state-owned United Shipbuilding Corporation. The tankers are expected to be delivered by the last quarter of 2013 and second quarter of 2014 and have been chartered for 15 years by Gazprom Global LNG. The new orders show Russia’s fast-growing need for LNG vessels. Vyacheslav Popov, head of the Commission on National Maritime Policy in the Federation Council told the Barents Observer in June that: “Russia by 2020 will need a total of 30 LNG tankers capable of transporting up to 25 million tons of LNG per year.”[/
Shtokman requires $4 billion tanker fleet
“The Shtokman project may require 20 tankers, which in total will cost $4 billion”, senior executive vice president of SCF Yevgeny Abrosov said yesterday at the Sakhalin 2011 Oil and Gas Conference in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia.
Russia’s largest shipper is seeking to open an Arctic Sea lane to Asia for large-scale commercial use during a five-month navigable season. SCF has reduced the time to navigate the passage by one day to 7.3 days in test runs this year, Ambrosov said.
Novatek, Russia’s second-largest gas producer, had tested the route with cargoes of condensate before building a plant to produce LNG on the Yamal Peninsula. Rosneft, Russia’s largest oil producer, and Glencore International, the world’s largest commodities trader, have also shown interest in the route, Ambrosov said.
Novatek’s Arctic Yamal LNG project, in which Total is a partner, may be the world’s most complex undertaking of its kind, Ambrosov said.
“We are making decisions along the whole transport component of this project and have arrived at a model of possibly using a gas tanker with capacity of about 170,000 cubic metres and ice class of Arc-7, which should operate year-round and be capable of breaking ice 2 m thick. It will be comparable to nuclear icebreakers,” Ambrosov added.
SCF plans to triple volumes of oil products it ships to 150 million tons in 2014, Ambrosov said. The tanker market continues to be “very tough,” he said.
SCF’s investment programme for strategic development in the period from 2011 to 2017 “differs from previous programmes in that we have decided that development of the ice-class fleet and expansion of our participation in projects related to Sakhalin and Arctic projects would be more effective for us. Considering the demands of the Arctic shelf, we are already gradually updating our fleet,” Ambrosov said.
Russia has two main shipping companies, SCF and Primorsk, operating seven LNG tankers. Two additional tankers ordered by SCF are being constructed by STX Shipbuilding in South Korea together with Russian state-owned United Shipbuilding Corporation. The tankers are expected to be delivered by the last quarter of 2013 and second quarter of 2014 and have been chartered for 15 years by Gazprom Global LNG. The new orders show Russia’s fast-growing need for LNG vessels. Vyacheslav Popov, head of the Commission on National Maritime Policy in the Federation Council told the Barents Observer in June that: “Russia by 2020 will need a total of 30 LNG tankers capable of transporting up to 25 million tons of LNG per year.”[/