The Yamal LNG shipping project has celebrated another key milestone in its development with the first successful ship-to-ship transfer operation off Norway at Honningsvåg. The Vladimir Rusanov LNG carrier, jointly owned by China’s Cosco and Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL), has been hauling gas for the Russian Arctic project since March. Over the weekend it completed unloading of Yamal LNG cargo to a lower ice class LNG carrier named Pskov. The two vessels were directly moored alongside each other during the STS operation in the calm sheltered waters of Honningsvåg.
Without this STS operation, the ice-breaking Vladimir Rusanov would have been required to navigate to a LNG receiving terminal in continental Western Europe necessitating more than two weeks navigation for the round trip.
Yamal LNG is located in Sabetta at the northeast of the Yamal Peninsula and is one of the world’s largest gas development projects.
