Russian ‘Shadow Fleet’ LNG Carrier Without Ice-Class Stops

The 138,028-cbm Arctic Metagaz is part of Russia’s expanding shadow fleet of LNG carriers in service of the sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 project.

Arctic Metagaz continues to idle in the East Siberian Sea around 48 hours after she reversed course. The vessel was passing through patches of remaining summer sea ice following in proximity to the nuclear icebreaker Sibir on August 29 when she began backtracking her initial course just after midnight UTC.

The vessel originally departed from the Russian port of Murmansk around August 19 carrying sanctioned supercooled gas in search of buyers in Asia. 

Icebreaker Sibir has been working for several weeks in the East Siberian Sea in an effort to open up shipping lanes through persistent summer sea ice along the Northern Sea Route.

Russian ice charts show considerable ice coverage in the waters near Pevek, ranging from 10 to 60 percent, including grounded hummocks. This summer season is the second year in a row when sea ice blocked the eastern reaches of the route even during late summer.

“Even in this ‘summer period’ ice conditions can be unpredictable and several Arctic LNG 2 ships have recently been challenged in the East Siberian Sea,” says Kjell Eikland, managing director of data provider Eikland Energy.

Even high ice-class LNG carriers have suffered hull damage in the past. In 2021 an Arc7 ice-class LNG carrier sustained damage to one of its azimuthing propulsion units. That same year early onset of sea ice required an extensive rescue operation involving several icebreakers to free nearly three dozen vessels and escort them into ice-free waters.

It is unclear if Arctic Metagaz sustained any damage during its attempt to pass through the ice. Russian officials have long touted the route as a new shipping corridor. They may thus not be keen to advertise the challenges the vessel encountered along the route.

The Northern Sea Route Administration publishes daily traffic logs of all vessels active on the route. Arctic Metagaz’s position, however, has been removed from the publicly available records raising further questions over its status.

Arctic Metagaz’s for now aborted attempt to punch through the sea ice with no ice-class may put a damper on Russia’s ability to ship out sanctioned gas from its Arctic LNG 2 facility. Another tanker with no ice protection, La Perouse, remains in a holding pattern further west along the Northern Sea Route.

Last week the plant’s majority owner, Novatek, had for the first time found a Chinese buyer after a year-long wait. More than one million tonnes of LNG produced in the Arctic could find their way to China in the coming weeks.

But beyond that the medium-term prospects for regular deliveries remain bleak. The summer shipping window will begin to rapidly close by mid-October leaving Novatek searching for suitable vessels to carry LNG through the ice. It currently only has one high ice-class Arc7 LNG carrier, Christophe de Margerie, and a handful of low-medium category vessels at its disposal; insufficient to maintain a regular shuttle operation during winter.