On 2 September 2019, Korolev Prospect, Sovcomflot’s LNG-fueled Aframax crude oil tanker, successfully carried out a commercial voyage along the Northern Sea Route (NSR). This is the first time that a large-capacity oil tanker has crossed the full length of the NSR using only LNG.
The voyage from Cape Zhelaniya to Cape Dezhnev lasted 7 days and 6 hours, during which the tanker covered a distance of 2,118 nautical miles at an average speed of 12.2 knots.
A well-prepared passage plan allowed us to avoid meeting massive icebergs in the Vilkitski Strait, and then we avoided ice concentrated in the Long Strait by taking a new route to the north of Wrangel Island. I believe that this new route, together with the ‘Tikhonov Route’, opened by SCF in 2011, will come in useful for planning the eastbound commercials voyages of LNG carriers along the NSR
…stated Oleg Shishkin, the tanker’s master.
The vessel sailed through the NSR, as part of its commercial voyage from the port of Murmansk to China, transporting a cargo of crude oil.
Korolev Prospect is the fourth in the ‘Green Funnel’ series of tankers. The 113,232-dwt vessel was delivered in February 2019 and has a length of 250 metres, breadth of 44 metres, and an ice class of 1A hull.
Before this trip, in 2010-2011, Sovcomflot conducted a number of experimental transit voyages along the NSR, aiming to prove that using this route as a transport corridor for large-scale cargo ships can be both technically feasible and economically viable.
Finally, these high-latitude voyages involving SCF’s vessels are the base for implementation of such projects as Yamal LNG and Novy Port.
Last October, Sovcomflot’s crude oil tanker ‘Gagarin Prospect’, completed its voyage across the Baltic and North Seas from Primorsk to Rotterdam, becoming the world’s first LNG Aframax crude oil tanker to complete the voyage.
In the same month, the LNG-fueled tanker ‘Lomonosov Prospect’ completed a commercial voyage along the Northern Sea Route (NSR), delivering a cargo of petroleum products from the Republic of Korea to Northern Europe.
