In fact, Yamal LNG announced the operational start of its new Arc7 ice-class LNG tanker “Yakov Gakkel”- the fifteenth and final of the Arc7 ice-class tankers built specifically for the Yamal LNG Project, according to a recent statement.
Namely, the “Yakov Gakkel” has loaded the 354th LNG cargo in the port of Sabetta and is now set to China.
The Project’s Arc7 ice-class fleet is capable of shipping all of the LNG produced given the increased performance of the first three LNG trains and the planned launch of Train 4.
The presence of all 15 Arc7 ice-class tankers creates additional opportunities from 2020 for optimizing the Project’s logistics both westbound and eastbound, such as the more extensive use of the Northern Sea Route.
In August it was said that Yamal LNG has shipped its twentieth million ton of LNG since the commencement of the project. Namely, the Arc7 ice-class tanker “Vladimir Voronin” loaded the 273rd cargo as the project reached 20 million tons of LNG produced since the start-up of Train 1 in December 2017.
Earlier in December, Yamal LNG announced that from the beginning of 2019, the plant produced more than 16.5 million tonnes of LNG, surpassing its annual nameplate production capacity.
Specifically, during the first eleven months of 2019, the plant managed to exceed its annual nameplate production capacity due to the fact that all three Yamal’s LNG trains were operating, with the third one launching a year earlier than planned, in 2018.
