Arctic LNG carrier in Northern Sea Route record traverse

Christophe de Margerie, the icebreaking LNG carrier owned and operated by Sovcomflot traversed the Northern Sea Route without icebreaker support in a record time for the month of July.

Sovcomflot said the milestone journey covering 2,360 nautical miles eastward, from the port of Sabetta to Cape Dezhnev, was completed in seven days and 17 hours, with an average speed of 12.8 knots.

The vessel delivered an LNG cargo from the Yamal liquefied natural gas facility to the Chinese Tangshan port.

On 31 July, the vessel successfully berthed at her destination port. In total, it took the vessel 18.5 days to travel from Sabetta to China.

Sovcomflot added in its statement that the passage along the Northern Sea Route eastward confirmed the economic efficiency of this route.

The voyage also marked the beginning of regular shipments of LNG along the NSR from Russia’s Arctic gas fields to the countries of Asia Pacific.