Russia's Plans for Ship-to-Ship LNG Transfers

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia is set to arrange ship-to-ship transfers of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and gas condensate in the Barents and Bering Seas, according to a draft project document released on Tuesday. This initiative aims to free up more ice-class tankers for Novatek, Russia's largest LNG producer.

Despite facing Western sanctions that limit access to essential tankers for transporting LNG along the Northern Sea Route to Asian markets, Novatek continues to push forward with its Arctic LNG 2 project. Notably, the European Union will prohibit loadings of Russian LNG in its ports starting in March 2025.

To tackle the vessel shortage capable of navigating Arctic conditions, Russia aims to have the existing ships unload cargoes to regular vessels at sea, thus allowing the ice-class tankers to handle new shipments.

The initial area set for these ship-to-ship transfers will be near Chosha Bay in the Barents Sea, designated for Obsky Ammiak, a subsidiary of Novatek. Furthermore, a second facility is planned for Kresta Bay in the Bering Sea.

These transfers will occur only when ice does not obstruct ship movement, enabling the loadings of 4.1 million cubic meters of LNG and 1.4 million cubic meters of gas condensate annually at each facility. Novatek has already utilized a similar method for ship-to-ship LNG transfers off Russia's Murmansk region.