Moscow (Platts)--18Feb2011/809 am EST/1309 GMT
Russia's largest shipper Sovcomflot is planning to send a Suezmax tanker via the Northern Sea Route from European Russia to Asia over the summer to further demonstrate that regular shipments through the Arctic are realistic, Sovcomflot executive vice president Nikolai Kolesnikov said Friday. Last August, Sovcomflot shipped an Aframax tanker with a condensate cargo along the Northern Sea Route for Russia's largest independent gas producer Novatek in the first ever voyage by a large vessel along the route. "We want to make a similar trip, but using a Suezmax vessel this summer," Kolesnikov said at the Russia Offshore conference in Moscow, adding that the route would have to be slightly altered to account for shallow waters in the East Siberian Sea. Kolesnikov reiterated the route shortens the shipping time to Asia by up to 45% and Sovcomflot hopes to eventually provide customers with the option of sending shipments east via the Northern Sea Route if conditions permit or west via the Suez Canal. After the successful August test, Novatek said it planned to ship six to eight 72,000 mt cargoes of condensate via the Arctic route in 2011, which would save the company 10-15% on transport costs. Novatek is testing shipments in the Northern Sea Route as part of its plans for the future Yamal LNG project in northern Russia, which envisions the construction of its first LNG train of between 5-7.5 million mt/year by 2016. Sovcomflot estimates shipments from Yamal to the Bering Straight between Russia and Alaska would take eight days. --Jake Rudnitsky, jake_rudnitsky@platts.comSimilar stories appear in Oilgram News. See more information at http://bit.ly/OilgramNews