Russia’s Novatek and China’s Cosco Shipping to expand Arctic collaboration

Russia’s Novatek, the operator of the giant Yamal LNG project in the Arctic, and China’s Cosco Shipping Corp. said they plan to expand their cooperation, especially in Arctic shipping.

Leonid Mikhelson, chief executive and co-owner of Novatek met on Tuesday in Shanghai with Xu Lirong, Chairman of Cosco Shipping’s board, where they “reviewed the good cooperation record on the Yamal LNG project,” according to a Novatek statement.

The officials agreed to “expand the mutual cooperation in scope and depth, especially to expand the dialogue on Arctic transportation collaboration,” the brief statement said.

To remind, Novatek started shipping LNG from its giant Yamal plant, Russia’s second export facility, in December 2017.

The three-train Yamal LNG plant, designed to produce about 16.5 million tonnes per year, loads the fuel onboard ice-class tanker specifically designed for the Arctic project. In total, fifteen Arc7 ice-class carriers will serve the Yamal LNG project.

Besides its Yamal LNG project, Novatek is also planning to build its second LNG export project to be located on the Gydan peninsula. The Arctic LNG-2 project is expected to have the same output as Yamal.