Gas tanker “Eduard Toll. Offshore giants of the oil and gas industry

The world's only icebreaking gas carrier August 23rd, 2017

There are two views on the Northern Sea Route. Supporters of the first argue that it will never become profitable and no one will use it en masse, while supporters of the second argue that this is just the beginning: the ice will melt even more and let this one be the most profitable in certain circumstances. It seems to me that the latter are winning so far. It’s not for nothing that such topics are thrown about

The gas tanker Christophe de Margerie (shipowner PJSC Sovcomflot) successfully completed its first commercial voyage on August 17, 2017, delivering a shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) along the Northern Sea Route (NSR) from Norway to South Korea.

During the voyage, the ship set a new record for crossing the NSR - 6.5 days. At the same time, the Christophe de Margerie became the first merchant ship in the world that was able to navigate the NSR without icebreaker support along the entire length of this route.

While crossing the NSR, the ship covered 2,193 miles (3,530 km) from Cape Zhelaniya on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago to Cape Dezhnev on Chukotka, the easternmost mainland point of Russia. The exact transition time was 6 days 12 hours 15 minutes.

During the voyage, the ship again confirmed its exceptional suitability for working in high latitudes. The average speed during the passage exceeded 14 knots - despite the fact that in some sections the gas carrier was forced to go through ice fields up to 1.2 m thick. It is noted that the total duration of the voyage from Hammerfest (Norway) to Boryeong (South Korea) with using the Northern Sea Route was 22 days, which is almost 30% less than it would have taken to travel along the traditional southern route through the Suez Canal. The results of the voyage made it possible to once again confirm the economic efficiency of using the Northern Sea Route for the transit of large-capacity vessels.
Christophe de Margerie is the world's first and so far only icebreaking gas carrier. The unique vessel was built by order of the Sovcomflot group of companies for year-round transportation of LNG as part of the Yamal LNG project. The vessel was put into operation on March 27, 2017 after successful completion of ice trials, which took place in the Kara Sea and the Laptev Sea.

The gas carrier is capable of independently breaking through ice up to 2.1 m thick. The vessel has an Arc7 ice class - the highest among existing transport vessels. The propulsion power of the gas carrier is 45 MW, which is comparable to the power of a modern nuclear icebreaker. High ice-passing ability and maneuverability of the Christophe de Margerie are ensured by Azipod-type rudder propellers, while it became the first high-ice-class vessel in the world to have three Azipods installed at once.
The gas carrier is named after Christophe de Margerie, the former head of the Total concern. He played a key role in developing investment decisions and the technological scheme of the Yamal LNG project and made a significant contribution to the development of Russian-French economic relations as a whole.

The Sovcomflot Group of Companies (SCF Group) is the largest shipping company in Russia, one of the world's leading companies in the maritime transportation of hydrocarbons, as well as servicing offshore exploration and production of oil and gas. Its own and chartered fleet includes 149 vessels with a total deadweight of more than 13.1 million tons. Half of the ships have an ice class.

Sovcomflot participates in servicing large oil and gas projects in Russia and the world: Sakhalin-1, Sakhalin-2, Varandey, Prirazlomnoye, Novy Port, Yamal LNG, Tangguh (Indonesia). The company's head office is located in St. Petersburg, with representative offices located in Moscow, Novorossiysk, Murmansk, Vladivostok, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, London, Limassol and Dubai.

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Typical LNG tanker ( methane carrier) can transport 145-155 thousand m 3 of liquefied gas, from which about 89-95 million m 3 of natural gas can be obtained as a result of regasification. LNG carriers are similar in size to aircraft carriers, but significantly smaller than ultra-large oil tankers. Due to the fact that methane carriers are extremely capital intensive, their downtime is unacceptable. They are fast, the speed of a sea vessel carrying reaches 18-20 knots, compared to 14 knots for a standard oil tanker. In addition, LNG loading and unloading operations do not take much time (on average 12-18 hours).

In the event of an accident, LNG tankers have a double-hull structure specifically designed to prevent leaks and ruptures. The cargo (LNG) is transported at atmospheric pressure and a temperature of –162°C in special thermally insulated tanks (referred to as “ cargo storage system") inside the internal hull of a gas carrier vessel. A cargo storage system consists of a primary container or reservoir for storing liquid, a layer of insulation, a secondary containment designed to prevent leakage, and another layer of insulation. If the primary tank is damaged, the secondary shell will not allow it. All surfaces in contact with LNG are made of materials resistant to extremely low temperatures. Therefore, such materials are usually used stainless steel, aluminum or invar(iron based alloy with nickel content 36%).

Moss type LNG tanker (spherical tanks)

Distinctive feature Moss type gas carriers, which currently make up 41% of the world methane carrier fleet, are self-supporting spherical tanks, which, as a rule, are made of aluminum and are attached to the ship’s hull using a cuff along the equator line of the tank. 57% of gas tankers use triple membrane tank systems (GazTransport system, Technigaz system And CS1 system). Membrane designs use a much thinner membrane that is supported by the walls of the housing. System GazTransport includes primary and secondary membranes in the form of flat Invar panels, and the system Technigaz The primary diaphragm is made of corrugated stainless steel. In system CS1 invar panels from the system GazTransport, acting as a primary membrane, are combined with three-layer membranes Technigaz(sheet aluminum sandwiched between two layers of fiberglass) as secondary insulation.

GazTransport & Technigaz LNG tanker (membrane structures)

Unlike vessels for transporting LPG ( liquefied petroleum gas), gas carriers are not equipped with a deck liquefaction unit, and their engines run on fluidized bed gas. Taking into account the fact that part of the cargo ( liquefied natural gas) supplements fuel oil, LNG tankers do not arrive at their destination port with the same amount of LNG that was loaded onto them at the liquefaction plant. The maximum permissible value of the evaporation rate in a fluidized bed is about 0.15% of the cargo volume per day. Steam turbines are mainly used as a propulsion system on methane carriers. Despite their low fuel efficiency, steam turbines can be easily adapted to run on fluidized bed gas. Another unique feature of LNG tankers is that they typically retain a small portion of their cargo to cool the tanks to the required temperature before loading.

The next generation of LNG tankers is characterized by new features. Despite the higher cargo capacity (200-250 thousand m3), the vessels have the same draft - today, for a ship with a cargo capacity of 140 thousand m3, a draft of 12 meters is typical due to the restrictions applied in the Suez Canal and most LNG ships. terminals. However, their body will be wider and longer. The power of steam turbines will not allow these larger vessels to develop sufficient speed, so they will use a dual-fuel gas-oil diesel engine developed in the 1980s. In addition, many LNG carriers currently on order will be equipped with ship regasification plant. Gas evaporation on methane carriers of this type will be controlled in the same way as on ships carrying liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), which will avoid cargo losses during the voyage.

Gas is delivered to consumers not only through pipelines, but also in liquefied form - mostly by sea. Currently, the transportation of “blue fuel” through gas pipelines and its transportation in the form of LNG are not competing segments, but only complement each other.

Why are LNG supplies needed?

Transportation of LNG is much more expensive than gas supplies via pipelines, and at first glance it may seem that the business niche associated with the transportation of liquefied gas is significantly inferior to pipeline supplies or even looks uncompetitive at all.

In particular, even at the stage of LNG production, certain production and energy capacities are required, as well as significant costs associated with cleaning and cooling of raw materials. For example, the production process alone requires an additional 25% of energy compared to preparing gas for conventional piped supplies. Thus, to compress 1 thousand cubic meters of gas, you will need to spend 250 cubic meters of this fuel. In addition, the need to convert LNG back into a gaseous state at the point of delivery and fuel loss both during transportation and storage should be taken into account.

It requires the construction of terminals in ports, regasification plants, additional gas pipelines for delivering fuel after it is converted from liquid to gaseous state, and, of course, huge tankers. And yet, despite the obvious cost of transporting LNG compared to traditional gas delivery through pipes, transportation of liquefied fuel is necessary. For example, consumers of Qatari gas are countries in the Asia-Pacific region, and laying a gas pipeline across the ocean seems to be a technically difficult task with enormous costs.

According to experts, the cost of delivering gas by tankers is gradually equalizing the cost of transporting fuel through pipes as the distance from fields to destinations reaches 2.5 thousand kilometers. Moreover, under certain conditions, tanker transportation can be even cheaper than pipeline deliveries. The dependence of the increase in the cost of LNG transportation on an increase in distance is much less than in cases associated with the need to build new main gas pipelines.

Also, transportation of liquefied gas is not so strictly tied to specific destinations - ships can call at any port suitable for receiving fuel. This is confirmed by the words of the head of Novatek Leonid Mikhelson. He notes that although the initial investment in LNG infrastructure is higher than in pipeline transport, delivering fuel by large tankers ends up being more profitable. The top manager clarifies that we are talking, among other things, about the lack of a clear link between the LNG business and specific buyers and the possibility of changing sales markets.

History of the development of the gas carrier fleet

LNG transportation by sea is carried out using special gas tankers (LNG carriers). Such vessels can transport not only LNG (natural gas - methane), but also petroleum gases - propane and butane in liquefied form. The first voyages of gas carriers date back to 1929, when Shell converted the oil tanker Megara for these purposes. She also built the Agnita ship at a Dutch shipyard, which was capable of simultaneously transporting oil, sulfuric acid and liquefied gases. The tanker was traveling from the Caribbean to Western Europe.

However, the tankers of that time cannot be considered full-fledged gas carriers of the LNG carrier class, since they transported only liquefied hydrocarbon gas and ammonia under pressure, but not low-temperature fractions of LNG. The fact is that methane in liquefied form can only be stored at temperatures within minus 162 degrees Celsius. The technology of that time was unable to provide such a condition for transportation.

Tanker Agnita, built 1931

For the first time, liquefied natural gas was transported using a combined method - under pressure and with refrigeration - only in the late fifties after the launch of the French gas carrier Descartes. And finally, the first full-fledged LNG tanker, Bridgestone Maru, was built in Japan in 1961. It was designed to transport methane in isolated tanks, at normal pressure, but cooled to boiling point.

To date, a fairly impressive fleet of LNG tankers has been built all over the world. It is expected that in 2017 their number will reach 520 units. The rate of increase in the volume of construction of gas carriers is growing. In particular, it took operators more than three decades to put the first hundred gas tankers into operation, and in the next seven years the fleet grew by 220 tankers. Currently, the average production rate of gas carriers is about one hundred vessels in three to five years.

Japanese LNG tanker Bridgestone Maru

The largest manufacturers of gas carriers are Asian companies, including Daewoo, Hyundai, Samsung, Mitsubishi, Kawasaki and Mitsui. Two thirds of the world's gas carriers have left the South Korean stocks. The demand for tankers is only increasing, which is associated with the commissioning of new LNG production capacities and increasing demand for gas. The supply volumes are impressive. For example, Pronedra wrote earlier that in just six years liquefied gas was shipped from Sakhalin terminals to a thousand tankers.

Q-Max class: giant tankers

The vast majority of methane carriers currently produced have a capacity of 145–155 thousand cubic meters. The volume of natural gas obtained from this amount of LNG through regasification is 89–95 million cubic meters. To a much lesser extent, small-class tankers are represented - with tanks designed for 18–19 thousand cubic meters of LNG.

The real colossi of the tanker industry deserve more attention - gas carriers of the Q-Max and Q-Flex classes, capable of transporting 210–266 thousand cubic meters of liquefied natural gas. Today, the largest representatives of the gas carrier fleet are the vessels of the Q-Max line, the first of which, the tanker Mozah, was built at Samsung shipyards by order of the Qatar Gas Transport Company for the supply of LNG by Qatargas and RasGas.

Mozah - Q-Max class tanker

The ship was named after the wife of the Qatari emir. Until Mozah was put into operation (2008), the carrying capacity of LNG tankers did not exceed 140 thousand cubic meters. Mozah's capabilities are amazing - its capacity has reached 266 thousand cubic meters of LNG. Liquefied gas is transported to Mozah in five membrane tanks. To roughly understand the scale of loading of one such gas carrier, you need to know only one thing - this amount of fuel is enough to provide electricity and heat to the entire UK continuously for one day.

The dimensions of the vessel are also striking. With a length of 345 meters and a width of 50 meters, it has a draft of 12 meters. However, the appearance of tankers with a higher draft is hardly possible, since their size and deadweight are limited by the possibility of passing through the Suez Canal. The unique design of the ship lies in the fact that it is equipped, among other things, with a unit designed to liquefy evaporating LNG, which, in turn, makes it possible to preserve 100% of the cargo along the route. Mozah was the first, but not the only gas carrier of the project - in total, 14 Q-Max tankers were built in just two years, all ordered by the Qataris. Vessels of this line were produced not only by Samsung, but also by the South Korean Daewoo.

Features of the design and operation of LNG tankers

A gas carrier of any class intended to transport LNG requires special technical solutions at the design and construction stages. This is due to the fact that liquefied natural gas is significantly different in its properties from any other type of cargo. In particular, in addition to the above-mentioned mandatory condition of maintaining ultra-low gas temperatures, when creating tankers, the critical explosion and fire hazards of LNG are also taken into account.

The cargo is pumped into thermally insulated tanks. These containers are surrounded by a double layer of insulation and an additional capital shell to prevent leaks in the event of damage to the main body. Surfaces in direct contact with liquefied gas are resistant to low temperatures, since they consist of steel, aluminum or invar (nickel-iron alloy).

41% of tankers use the Moss system when the tanks are spherical. They are made using aluminum and are attached to the ship's hull along the line of its "equator". In addition, when constructing 47% of LNG gas carriers, three-membrane systems are used - for example, CS1, Technigaz and GazTransport standards. A number of Japanese companies involved in the production of gas carriers prefer to install prismatic type tanks.

LNG tanker with spherical tanks (Moss system): 1 - engine room; 2 - cabin; 3 - spherical tanks; 4 - ballast

The high cost of production of gas carriers leads to the fact that when designing them, solutions are provided that initially allow the use of ships with the most efficient work schedule for the fastest payback.

LNG tanker with three-membrane tanks (GazTransport & Technigaz): 1 - engine room; 2 - cabin; 3 - membrane-type LNG tanks; 4 - ballast

In particular, the design features of the ships make it possible to completely load or unload a large gas carrier in a maximum of 18 hours. In addition, gas carriers are quite fast. Their speed reaches 20 knots (more than 37 kilometers per hour), despite the fact that conventional oil tankers cannot accelerate faster than 14 knots (26 kilometers per hour).

LNG tankers use directly transported liquefied gas as fuel for power plants. However, LNG acts as fuel for gas carrier engines only partially, mostly together with traditional fuel oil. Tankers are equipped with steam turbines, which, despite their insufficient efficiency as propulsion systems, are at the same time “omnivorous”.

As a promising direction, the possibility of installing dual-fuel diesel engines with low-pressure gas injection systems on gas carriers is being considered. Such engines run on both diesel fuel and evaporating liquid gas. They are distinguished by the possibility of flexible use of operating modes, as well as being highly efficient and quite safe.

Engine room with dual-fuel engines of the LNG tanker Castillo de Santisteban

In general, the main priority when designing ships at the present stage of shipbuilding development is to achieve the maximum level of energy efficiency, which is ensured not only by the competent use of certain solutions related to fuel supply and engines, but also by optimizing the shape of the gas carrier hull to reduce water resistance when moving with in order to prevent loss of speed and prevent increased fuel costs.

LNG tanker Creole Spirit

It is obvious that increasing the efficiency of liquefied gas transportation to regions where laying gas pipelines is unprofitable or impossible is not a matter for power engineers, but primarily for shipbuilders. Their engineering solutions depend on increasing the profitability of transportation and, as one of the results, providing suppliers with the opportunity to reduce the cost of gas, making it more accessible to consumers in terms of price.

A key aspect of life support—the production of electrical and thermal energy in the regions—not only for industry, but also for household consumers, that is, ordinary citizens, depends on the supply of gas, as well as coal. Thus, the shipbuilding industry is charged, no less than pipeline operators, with the mission of effectively transporting global energy security.

The liquefied natural gas (LNG) maritime transport sector has not escaped the impact of the crisis in the world's major markets. Despite the overall increase in volumes, freight costs have fallen sharply due to excess transport capacity. Against this background, the Russian Sovcomflot is trying to expand its place in the oil and gas transportation market. So far, all of the company’s gas carriers have been built abroad, but in the future Russia plans to transport raw materials on its own LNG tankers. And the state is ready to change legislation to ensure demand for the national carrier

The LNG shipping market is experiencing difficult times, despite volume growth of 2.5% in 2015. Excess capacity has led to low rates for leasing LNG tankers: prices have fallen to $25 thousand per day from a peak of $155 thousand in mid-2012. According to the consulting company Poten & Partners, in 2016 the number of idle vessels should be halved. In another year, stable demand is predicted against the backdrop of the commissioning of new gas liquefaction and regasification capacities. And in the next three years, the global fleet of LNG tankers will grow by 30%, adding 128 new vessels.

The current market situation reflects low demand for gas in Asia amid the growth of nuclear and coal-fired energy generation in Japan and South Korea. The International Energy Agency predicts an oversupply of gas on the market in the next 15 years. Cheap coal, increased energy efficiency and renewable energy production will lead to low growth in gas demand. Analysts predict an increase in mergers and acquisitions in the shipping market. Thus, Reuters reports that the largest Dynagas, Golar LNG and GasLog have agreed to transfer 14 tankers to a single pool in order to reduce costs. Several small shipping companies have received offers to take over or sell ships. The deal of the year was the takeover of BG by Royal Dutch Shell: as a result, the largest operator with a fleet of 70 tankers for transporting liquefied natural gas appeared on the market. According to Shell, global demand for natural gas will grow by an average of 2% per year until 2020, while the liquefied natural gas market will double in size

Against this background, Russia is trying to protect its market. Changes may be made to Russian legislation in order to limit the transportation of oil and gas by ships not flying the Russian flag, and from 2020 - by ships not built in the Russian Federation. It is assumed that by this time the Far Eastern shipbuilding complex Zvezda will be capable of producing gas carriers. Full commissioning of this shipbuilding center, the development project of which is currently being implemented by Rosneft in technological partnership with a number of foreign companies, is expected in 2024. USC, loaded with military orders, promises to increase the share of civilian shipbuilding from 10 to 25% by 2025. But so far all gas carriers operated by our national carrier, Sovcomflot, have been built abroad.

Last year was one of the most successful in the entire history of Sovcomflot (the largest Russian shipping company, 100% of the shares are owned by the state). The company is one of the world's leading players in the field of maritime transportation of hydrocarbons and servicing offshore oil and gas projects. It works both under long-term contracts for the supply of oil and LNG, ensuring the operation of oil and gas platforms, and under spot contracts. The existing fleet construction program is focused on the highly profitable segment of servicing projects implemented in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions, and assumes that new vessels will sail under the flag of the Russian Federation and specialize either in coastal shipping or offshore oil and gas projects. Sovcomflot approaches each such project individually, ordering unique vessels for each specific project. The ships currently being built by Sovcomflot belong to a new generation with a high ice class.

Russian gas carrier

The gas fleet includes 13 vessels (one is still under construction). Of the 12 vessels in operation, eight are LNG tankers and four vessels are designed to transport liquefied petroleum gas. Not long ago, the SKF Arctic and SKF Polar, which had become the first gas carriers of Sovcomflot, were decommissioned. The company received them with a valid charter for the benefit of Stream LNG (a joint venture between Repsol and Gas Natural). These two first generation LNG carriers were built in 1969 in Sweden. Thanks to SCF Arctic and SCF Polar, Sovcomflot has acquired independent experience in the premium segment of the market for the transportation of liquefied natural gas. Gas carriers have successfully transported LNG from Qatar and Algeria to ports in Spain and France, and from Trinidad and Tobago to Boston. In recent years, SCF Arctic and SCF Polar have been used for regasification and ship-to-ship LNG transshipment as part of the Escobar project at the mouth of the Parana River in Argentina, thanks to which Sovcomflot now has a unique capability for Russian companies experience in these areas. Now the company hopes to use it in Gazprom’s new project in Kaliningrad to build a floating regasification terminal Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU) of ice class Arc 4, which will be built at the Hyundai Heavy Industries shipyard.

The eight LNG carriers in operation include the conventional Tangguh Towuti and Tangguh Batur (built in 2008 at the Daewoo Shipbuilding Marine Engineering shipyards, sailing under the flag of Singapore), Grand Elena and Grand Aniva (built in 2007 and 2008 at the shipyards of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, sailing under the flag of Cyprus) and Atlanticmax Velikiy Novgorod, Pskov, SCF Melampus, SCF Miter (built in 2014-2015 at the STX Shipbuilding shipyards, sailing under the Liberian flag). High-tech gas carriers of the Atlanticmax type, chartered under long-term contracts in the interests of Gazprom and Shell, can be used to transport liquefied natural gas from most of the world's LNG terminals, with the exception of Sabetta (Yamal LNG project). Ice class Ice 2 will not allow these vessels to be used on the Northern Sea Route. The first ice-class LNG tanker Arc 7, named Christophe de Margerie, for the Yamal LNG project was launched at the Daewoo Shipbuilding Marine Engineering shipyard at the beginning of the year, in October this year it will be handed over to Sovcomflot, and in winter navigation it should undergo ice tests with a call at the port of Sabetta. It is planned that this first Ymalmax class gas carrier, which has no analogues in the world, will sail under the Russian flag.

Sovcomflot also works with Shell within the framework of Sakhalin-2. The project operator Sakhalin Energy, together with SCF, manages the oil and gas terminal in the port of Prigorodnoye (one of the leaders in terms of transshipment volumes among Russian port terminals). The first supply of LNG to the world market of the Sakhalin-2 project was carried out on the Sovcomflot gas carrier Grand Aniva in March 2009, and in March 2015 the LNG tanker Grand Elena completed its 100th voyage from Prigorodny. In August 2015, the thousandth shipment of LNG was carried out as part of Sakhalin-2, most of it was sent on Sovcomflot gas carriers. The volume of a standard batch of liquefied natural gas is 145 thousand cubic meters. m. Now companies are making plans to develop and transfer sea and river transport in Russia to liquefied natural gas. In addition, Sovcomflot hopes that its gas carriers SCF Melampus and SCF Miter, commissioned last year, will be used to transport liquefied natural gas from the floating FLNG plant of Shell's Australian Prelude project. The deal to finance the construction of these two tankers won the competition of the industry publication Marine Money in the “Project Financing” category. The Russian company managed to attract a consortium of European banks to the project, including the Dutch ING Bank N.V. Sovcomflot's transactions have received top Marine Money awards for the fifth year in a row.

Privatization is ahead

Sovcomflot was included in the list of assets, packages in which the Russian government expects to sell in 2016 to replenish the budget. It is planned to sell a stake of 25% minus 1 share, which should bring at least 24 billion rubles to the Russian treasury. Recently, the Ministry of Economic Development appointed VTB Capital as an investment consultant for the sale of the state stake. At the same time, the bank acted as one of the organizers of the transaction for the sale of Sovcomflot Eurobonds. Seven-year bonds totaling $750 million were sold to investors. The company plans to use the funds to repurchase Eurobonds due in 2017, as well as to pay off other debt. At the end of the first quarter, Sovcomflot showed an increase in net profit by 9.2%, to $103.1 million (compared to the same period last year). For comparison, the company ended 2015 with a record figure, earning $354.5 million, which is four times more than in 2014. Sovcomflot believes that the planned privatization may negatively affect the liquidity of the state-owned company's debt securities and their prices.

The company's fleet today includes 140 vessels with a total deadweight of 12.3 million tons, including oil tankers, product carriers and shuttle tankers, gas carriers, specialized vessels (tugs, supply vessels, research vessels), and bulk carriers. The shipbuilding program includes eight vessels with a deadweight of more than 200 thousand tons - one Arctic gas carrier, four icebreaking supply vessels for offshore production platforms, three Arctic shuttle tankers. The company is strengthening its position in the segments of liquefied natural gas transportation and servicing offshore oil and gas production. In the first quarter, in addition to the Christophe de Margerie gas carrier for the Yamal LNG project, a new Sovcomflot oil tanker was launched, which will operate under a long-term agreement for oil transportation within the framework of another Arctic project “New Port” of the Gazprom Neft company "