Sovcomflot promotes environmentally friendly transport along the Northern Sea Route

Sovcomflot promotes environmentally friendly transport along the Northern Sea Route

Two large-capacity tankers of Sovcomflot, using liquefied natural gas as the main fuel, Mendeleev Avenue and Lomonosov Avenue, successfully completed their eastbound voyage along the Northern Sea Route (NSR).

Lomonosov Avenue reached Cape Dezhnev, the easternmost end of the NSR, at 05:50 Moscow time on October 16, 2019. Mendeleev Avenue did the same three days later, at 13:00 Moscow time on October 19, 2019.

Both vessels heading to China with a cargo of crude oil from the port of Primorsk crossed the entire length of the NSR using only environmentally friendly fuel.

Lomonosov Avenue completed the flight from Cape Zhelaniya to Cape Dezhnev in 7 days and 20 hours, covering a distance of 2095 nautical miles with an average speed of 12 knots. Mendeleev Avenue made the same flight in 7 days and 5 hours, covering a distance of 2104 nautical miles with an average speed of 12.3 knots. Under favorable ice conditions along the entire route and accurate planning, both vessels traveled the entire length of the NSR without icebreaker support.

Sovcomflot is steadily introducing LNG as a fuel for large-capacity cargo transportation in the Arctic. In October 2018, Lomonosov Avenue crossed the NSR to the west, successfully testing the operation of ship engines and the LNG fuel system control system during the voyage. In 2019, Sovcomflot transported three of its LNG tankers eastward (Koroleva Ave. in September 2019, Lomonosov Avenue and Mendeleev Avenue in October 2019) and one such tanker to the west.

Currently, Sovcomflot has six LNG oil tankers delivered in 2018-2019. The main ship of the series is Gagarin Avenue. Each tanker with a carrying capacity of 113,000 tons is assigned an ice class of 1A / 1B, with a length of 250 meters and a width of 44 meters.