First shipment of gas from Yamal LNG project arrives in China

The first shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Yamal LNG project in the Arctic arrived in Jiangsu Province in eastern China on Thursday, reports thepaper.cn.

The Vladimir Rusanov, carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Yamal LNG project in the Arctic, arrives in Jiangsu Province on Thursday, July 19, 2018.[Photo: China National Petroleum Corporation]

The maiden voyage to China of the Vladimir Rusanov, a 172,000-cubic-meter LNG carrier, was commemorated by a ceremony attended by Nur Bekri, the director of the National Energy Administration of China, and Alexander Novak, Russia's minister of energy.

The LNG carrier traveled to China via a 10,700-kilometer-long northern sea route, which is about 13,400 kilometers shorter than the traditional eastern shipping route via the Suez Canal and the Strait of Malacca. The new route could cut more than 20 days from the voyage, according to thepaper.cn.

The Yamal LNG project operated by JSC Yamal LNG is a joint-venture with Russia's largest independent natural gas producer NOVATEK. The China National Petroleum Corporation and the Silk Road Fund are both major stakeholders.

The LNG extraction project on the Yamal Peninsula is still under construction. When fully complete, the gas it produces will be shipped to the Asia-Pacific and European markets. This includes more than three million tons of LNG that will be imported annual to China for the China National Petroleum Corporation starting next year.