On July 17, around 10 am Moscow time gas train Arc7 "Vladimir Rusanov" approached the Chinese coast and stood at the roadstead of the Chinese port of Jiangsu-Zhudong, and on the night of July 18, Edward Tolle was to join him, according to positioning systems ships marinetraffic.com. On the morning of July 17 (the last update of the data from the icebreaker Eduard Tolle), the ship was about 20 hours from Jiangsu-Zhudong port.

Loaded with liquefied gas from Yamal LNG, both tankers withdrew from the port of Sabetta on June 25 and 27, respectively. The way to China took them just over three weeks. This is the first case in the history of the Northern Sea Route, when tankers passed along the eastern route towards the Bering Strait without icebreaker escorts, Novatek reported. A solemn meeting of tankers with the participation of the company's predecessor Leonid Mikhelson and the Minister of Energy Alexander Novak "Novatek" planned for today, July 19.

Now the same route is the gas carrier "Christophe de Margerie". It is assumed that as early as July 31, it will be unloaded at the Tangshan LNG terminal in north-eastern China, according to marinetraffic.com. "All three tankers go to Asian buyers, including CNPC," a Novatek representative said, but he did not disclose the recipients of the goods.

Yamal LNG is the first Novatek facility for liquefying gas in the Russian Arctic with a design capacity of 17.5 million tonnes of LNG a year. The partners of the Russian company under the project are French Total (20%) and Chinese CNPC (20%) and Silk Road Fund (9.9%). December 8, 2017 the first technological stage of the plant (5.5 million tons) began shipping finished products. At full capacity, the company will start operating next year.

Novatek also has another project, the Arctic LNG-2, with a capacity of 19.8 million tons of LNG a year. Construction of the plant can begin in 2019, and production - in 2022-2023. The project was estimated at $ 25.5 billion. In May, it was announced that Total 10% of the project was purchased with the possibility of increasing the share to 15%.

CNPC has a 20-year contract with Yamal LNG for the supply of 3 million tons of LNG per year. It is tied to energy prices in Japan - Japan Crude Coctail (JCC), says Frank Konerz, chief analyst for LNG markets at S & P Global Platts. According to this formula, the cost of LNG in July can be about $ 10.5-10.9 / MBTE, Vygon Consulting consultant Ekaterina Kolbikova estimated. While the cost of supplying gas from Yamal to China, taking into account the cost of production and transportation, is only $ 6.1 / MBT when transported along the Northern Sea Route for six months a year. Thus, the net income of Yamal LNG from supplies for each gas carrier with a carrying capacity of 77,000 tons can be about $ 16 million.

In addition, LNG delivery by the eastern route through the Bering Strait is 1.5 times faster than the western one - around Europe, through the Mediterranean, Indian and then Pacific oceans, Konerets points out: 44 days against 68 days on the round-trip route. "This provides significant savings in transportation costs," says Konerz. The difference in the cost of LNG delivery to the countries of the Asia-Pacific region through the Bering Strait is about $ 0.8 / MBT compared to the western route, Novatek said. It turns out saving $ 3.2 million for each flight.

Demonstration of the operation of the eastern route may increase the interest of potential partners to participate in the Arctic LNG-2 project, Konerz said: "Prospective buyers of Russian LNG will closely monitor these events."