Novatek $4.8 bln Yamal LNG fleet complete. Yakov Gakkel expected to load next week

Russia’s largest independent natural gas producer and LNG exporting player, Novatek has completed the $4.8 billion, 15-vessel strong fleet of Arc7 liquefied natural gas carriers set to serve its giant Yamal LNG project in the Arctic.

The Yamal project is currently operating with 14 Arc7 LNG carriers while the 15th tanker, the 172,000-cbm Yakov Gakkel “is at Sabetta currently waiting to load its first cargo, which is expected next week,” Novatek’s finance chief Mark Gyetvay told LNG World News on Monday at the sidelines of the Budapest LNG Summit.

He noted that the imminent loading by Yakov Gakkel is in line with the company’s goal to have the full fleet delivered and in operation before the end of the year.

To remind, the Yamal LNG facility has shot past its annual nameplate production capacity during the first 11 months of the year going above the 16.5 million tons mark.

The facility produced a total of 25 million tons of LNG since it started up the first train in December of 2017 and has loaded over 340 cargoes.

It has also shipped its first cargo to Bangladesh recently. The ice-class Arc7 LNG tanker Eduard Toll cargo was transshipped to a conventional type LNG tanker at the Belgian terminal located at Zeebrugge and later delivered to the Summit LNG Terminal.

The fleet of 15 Arctic LNG carriers comprises vessels operated by Sovcomflot (one vessel) Dynagas (five vessels), MOL (three vessels) and Teekay (six vessels).

By Mirza Duran, Adnan Bajic