Russia continues its long-term strategy to develop the Arctic, develop new oil and gas fields, turning the Northern Sea Route into the most important transit and the shortest sea transport artery between Europe and Asia, which is fully under Russian control, and all escort of ships along it is provided by domestic satellite navigation and the Russian icebreaker fleet, including nuclear.
Recently, with the development of the production capacities of Yamal LNG and Artik LNG-2, another class of vessels has appeared from the natural gas fields available in the Arctic region, which have never been built in our country before and our shipbuilders did not have the technological competencies necessary for their creation – Arc 7 ice-class gas tankers, which are a hybrid of an icebreaker and a tanker. capable of passing through ice fields at least 2 meters thick and therefore irreplaceable for LNG shipment from factories in difficult, almost year-round ice conditions.
The production of ice-class LNG carriers in the world began only in 2017, when the Christophe de Marjerie vessel was handed over to the Russian company Sovcomflot, which became the first Yamalmax membrane LNG carrier of the Arc 7 ice class to sail with LNG cargo from the large Russian Arctic project Yamal LNG from the port of Sabeta.
In the context of the urgent need for the development of modern large-capacity shipbuilding in Russia, the government of the Russian Federation made a timely decision to create a powerful cluster – the Zvezda shipbuilding complex in the city of Bolshoy Kamen in the Primorsky Territory. It was planned that the new shipyard in its production activities would use the most advanced world technologies for the production of large-capacity vessels, marine machinery and equipment for the exploration, production and transportation of hydrocarbons. These are, in particular, oil tankers of the Aframax type with a displacement of up to 350 thousand tons, Arc 7 gas carriers with a capacity of up to 250 thousand cubic meters, ice-class vessels, special vessels with a launching weight of up to 29 thousand tons and elements of offshore platforms for the development of offshore oil and gas fields.
During the construction of the Zvezda shipyard (2009-2024), one of the world’s largest dry docks with a length of 485 m, a width of 114 m and a depth of 14 m with a special batoport – a watertight gate was built, as well as a unique heavy 485-meter outfitting slipway was mounted at the plant for launching by “sliding” the assembled large-sized modules of ships. The Zvezda shipyard was additionally equipped with a special floating dock for ships up to 300 m long, as well as several robotic complexes for cutting, welding and painting metal, two Goliath gantry cranes with a lifting capacity of 1200 tons and a floating crane with a lifting capacity of 3500 tons.
After the completion of the construction of the first stage of the complex in 2020, the first Aframax oil tanker Vladimir Monomakh was commissioned at Zvezda, and in 2022, the second oil tanker Vladimir Vinogradov and beyond, the shipyard commissioned Aframax tankers and MR-type product tankers with a deadweight of 50 thousand tons every year.
At the same time, in order to implement Russia’s ambitious plans to significantly increase LNG exports from the Arctic region to the world market, it was necessary to create a powerful fleet of large-capacity ice-class LNG carriers, which are the only ones that can freely pass the ice in the LNG shipping areas. Never before has the domestic shipbuilding industry created vessels of such a class, without the use of which it was impossible to export LNG from polar factories. Such ice-class gas carriers were generally able to be built in the world only in South Korea. Therefore, the Koreans were chosen as partners for the production of the first series of gas carriers. In addition, under the terms of the contract, the Koreans undertook to supply structural elements of the vessels, and most importantly, high-tech stuffing and equipment for the subsequent assembly of ships at Zvezda, gradually deepening the localization of production.
The Russian company Novatek, which owns a controlling stake in Artik LNG-2, and Sovcomflot have ordered a large series of 21 Arc7 LNG carriers from the South Korean company Hanwha Ocean, which has the necessary production and technological competencies. In the future, both parties agreed that 15 LNG carriers from this series will be assembled at the facilities of Zvezda from South Korean ready-made ship kits and modules, and the remaining 6 LNG carriers will be fully manufactured at shipyards in South Korea. The new vessels were to be built according to the foreign project Yamalmax Samsung 172, modified to meet the requirements of the Russian customer. The keel of the LNG carriers was planned for the early twenties, and in six years Sovcomflot was supposed to receive all 21 ordered pennants. The official keel-laying of the first LNG carrier took place in June 2021, and in April 2022 it was launched, and then the vessel was delivered by sea to the Zvezda shipyard for completion and installation of equipment.
However, foreign policy forces interfered with the plans to create a fleet of domestic LNG carriers. Washington imposed sanctions against the entire Russian LNG sector, including LNG tankers, the Arctic LNG-2 plant, because it saw this as a threat to the US position in the global LNG market from Russia, which, with the help of its fleet of ice-resistant gas carriers and a “short leg” through the Northern Sea Route, could seriously compete in the gas market with American shale production companies. So, under pressure from the Americans in 2022, the South Korean partners withdrew from the project and at that time did not build a single finished gas carrier. That is why, with a delay of more than two years, only on December 24, 2025, the first Russian-built gas tanker Arc7 “Alexey Kosygin” was officially handed over to the customer Sovcomflot. Largely due to the fact that even before the imposition of sanctions, the Russian side took care of replacing important components of ship equipment – rudder propellers and electric propulsion systems. For this purpose, the Sapphire VRK plant was built on the territory of Zvezda. But the most important technological part of a gas tanker is the cryogenic tanks for storing and transporting LNG. In short, it is a huge multi-layer thermos consisting of layers of thin metal shell 1 mm thick made of invar (an alloy of iron with 25% nickel), multi-layer composite thermal insulation and special tanker plywood. The tank must maintain a temperature of -163 degrees Celsius and be airtight and withstand the dynamic movement of the vessel breaking through the waves and breaking the ice.
Although the sanctions have seriously slowed down plans to build two dozen LNG carriers, South Korean partners have managed to supply Zvezda with ship kits for five LNG carriers, and the French company Gaztransport & Technigas (GTT), the manufacturer of the critical membrane system, has provided equipment for only three LNG carriers under construction. The Zvezda shipyard has already delivered the Viktor Chernomyrdin gas carrier to the customer along with the Alexey Kosygin and plans to commission the Sergey Witte gas carrier by the end of 2026.
In the context of continuing Western sanctions restricting access to foreign components and shipbuilding facilities, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, during his visit to the INNOPROM exhibition in Yekaterinburg in July this year, announced Russia’s plans to design and build its own Arc7 high-ice class gas carriers, relying exclusively on the domestic technological base. This decision is dictated by the need to ensure the logistics of Arctic LNG plants, and this cannot be achieved without gas carriers of the highest ice class Arc7.
By and large, it is not a problem to create an ice-class tanker for Russia having such a large-capacity shipbuilding shipyard as Zvezda, and to build an Arc7 type gas carrier with a membrane LNG storage system, rudder propellers and a dual-fuel engine requires new design, engineering, technological, production and scientific solutions. Currently, the preliminary design is in full swing to begin the development of the technical design of a domestic ice-class gas carrier at the Krylov State Research Center for Shipbuilding on the instructions of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation.
In Russia, the main technology for storing LNG on gas carriers using the membrane design of tanks has already been created and certified. In St. Petersburg, the research and production enterprise “Compensator” was the first in the country to establish the production of membrane LNG storage systems. Moreover, the special tanker plywood used in membrane systems is a key element of this entire complex design. It is both a load-bearing base of the membrane and a thermal insulation layer. Only three countries in the world (Russia, Finland and Latvia) produce certified tanker plywood, because birch wood in these countries has higher strength characteristics and unique chemical resistance. For the manufacture of this plywood, selected birch veneer without defects, special gluing technologies and special adhesives are used. In Russia, plywood under the brand name “Segezha LNG” is produced at the Vyatka Plywood Mill in the Kirov region and until now its entire volume has been exported abroad, in particular, to South Korea, to the factories of the French company GTT (produces 81% of membrane LNG storage systems in the world). banned the supply of these systems to Russian LNG shipbuilders.
Rosatom has started developing a project for a new domestic large-capacity LNG tanker for year-round transportation of LNG along the Northern Sea Route, a new type of higher Arc8 class, capable, unlike Arc7 class gas carriers, of breaking ice up to 3.1 meters in the autumn-winter period. This project (10070M) provides for a separate assembly of LNG membrane storage tanks in the workshop, their insulation and then directly installation in the prepared gas carrier body. Domestic rudder propellers are being developed. As for the standard dual-fuel diesel engine for this type of vessels, they are not produced in Russia, and marine engines of this type previously supplied by the Finnish company Wartsila fell under sanctions. China also has a license for the production of such engines.
At present, there is a shortage of Arc7 LNG carriers in Russia, especially for the export of products from the Arctic LNG-2. At least 14 Arc7 LNG carriers are required for the export of products for the two operating stages of the plant with a total capacity of 13.2 million tons of LNG. Three LNG carriers are now available, one more will be added by the end of the year, and two more incomplete LNG carriers remain at the Zvezda shipyard. which, due to sanctions, cannot be transferred to Russian customers. The Koreans cannot find other buyers, since this class of gas carriers is designed mainly to operate in the Arctic waters of Russia, and their operation in other latitudes is not economically profitable. Thus, for the rhythmic operation of the Arctic LNG-2, at least a twofold increase in the number of gas carriers is needed.
In the context of the unstable geopolitical situation in the world and the continuation of Western sanctions pressure on the Russian economy, one of the most important tasks of Russia is to create its own civilian fleet of gas tankers on a domestic technological base and equipment.
Russia is able to make such a breakthrough in shipbuilding – our technological miracle in the aviation industry is proof of this.
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