Yamal LNG Transships LNG in Norway

Russia's export project, Yamal LNG, has carried out its first ship-to-ship LNG transshipment in northern Norway, said major shareholder Novatek. These operations have been routinely carried out further west, but using a Norwegian port means a more efficient use of the ice-class tankers.

"The Arc7 ice-class LNG tanker successfully reloaded an LNG cargo delivered from the Yamal LNG facility at Sabetta to the lower ice-class designated tanker Pskov, which then delivered the reloaded cargo to customers in northwest Europe," the company said.

Novatek’s deputy head, Lev Feodosyev, said: "This approach allows us to optimise our transport costs by decreasing the travel distance of the Arc7 ice-class tankers and to ensure timely offloading of LNG."

The first ship-to-ship LNG transshipment off Norway came as the company announced November 22 that it has started up production from the third and final train of its Yamal LNG project, bringing the project’s nameplate capacity to 16.5mn metric tons/yr; split between three trains of 5.5mn mt/yr each.

Yamal LNG is majority owned by Novatek (50.1%); partners are Total (20%), and from China, state-owned state CNPC (20%) and the Silk Road Fund (9.9%). LNG exports from the first and second trains began in December 2017 and August 2018 respectively.