Novatek Orders Four Icebreakers: Press

The Zvezda shipyard in the Russian Far East has secured an order from Novatek for LNG-fuelled icebreakers, Moscow business daily Kommersant reported on July 17.

Citing a document sent by state-owned nuclear group Rosatom to the government, the newspaper said the order was worth rubles 60bn ($955mn). Though commissioned and paid for by Novatek, the vessels will be managed by Atomflot, Rosatom’s ship-owning subsidiary.

Novatek will require a fleet of icebreakers to carry LNG from its planned Arctic LNG-2 terminal on the Gydan Peninsula. The terminal is due to start up in 2022-2023 and produce 19.8mn mt/yr of LNG at full capacity.

The Zvezda shipyard is operated by a joint venture between Russia's national oil company Rosneft and state-owned Gazprombank.

Novatek is already working with Atomenergomash, another Rosatom subsidiary, on the joint development of 'high tonnage' gas liquefaction technology, without quantifying the capacity they are aiming for. The Arctic Cascade technology, being used at Yamal LNG, is just 0.9mn mt/yr although the cold weather has enabled the earlier, 5.5mn mt/yr trains, to exceed nameplate. The two companies aim to insulate Russian LNG from external threats such as sanctions, and to save money on importing technology.