An LNG carrier has begun sailing east along through the Northern Sea Route (NSR) marking the first shipment to Asia via the Arctic passage this year as Russia's exports ramp up.
Ship tracking data show the Yamal Trade-chartered, 172,600-cbm, Arc7 Vladimir Rusanov (built 2018) left Novatek's Yamal LNG's Sabetta terminal on 28 June.
Russia is pushing to open up the NSR as domestic energy company Novatek moves to bring on two more LNG projects - Arctic LNG 2 and Ob LNG, while ramping up its third production train at Yamal and adding a fourth smaller unit.
