CANADA’S COMMERCIAL MARINE MAGAZINE AUGUST 2019 WESTERNMARINER.COM 53She was beset by ice off Deception Bay for 17 days in June
2018 as strong NNW winds kept the pressure on. The more
powerful nunavik arrived and had to ram the ice 62 times
to free the arctic. In March of 2019, arctic was again stuck
for seven days. Now 40 years old, arctic will be replaced
next year with a sistership of the more powerful umiak I.Nitin Nayyar, vice president of LNG operations for
Mitsui O.S.K. Line (MOL), detailed the company’s ARC-7
icebreaking LNG tankers being used for the new Yamal
LNG plant at the port of Sabetta in Russia. He noted it was
an area with three months of polar night and temperatures
that reach -52 degrees Celcius. The vlaDimirrusanov(2017,
Daewoo Shipbuilding, South Korea) is first of three MOL
ARC-7 LNG tankers. The ships are designed to operate in
first year ice 2.1 metres (7 ft) thick, and are part of a total
group of 15 ships now in service or under construction for
the project, including six for Teekay Shipping.
The vlaDimirrusanov has three azipods instead of stan-
dard propellers, and is designed to break heavy ice by
going astern. All of the ships are designed to sail through
Russia’s Northern Sea Route to Asia during the summer
months, and shuttle west to Europe. This past winter the
port of Honningsvag, Norway was used to transship the
cargo to conventional LNG tankers for onward delivery to
Europe or Asia, allowing the ARC-7 tankers to quickly re-
turn to reload.
Nayyar ended his presentation by noting his surprising
discovery of preliminary studies and planning reports for
possible LNG shipments from a giant natural gas discov-
ery made in the 1970s on Melville Island, Nunavut. While
those plans were shelved and there are no current plans,
the ARC-7 tankers point the way to a possible develop-
ment of the natural gas field in the distant future.The MV auJaQ loading at Valleyfield, Quebec June 21, 2019.
Built in 1994 by Merwede Shipyard in the Netherlands, the
vessel is the latest addition to the NEAS sealift fleet. It called
Churchill in early July to load cargo destined for Rankin Inlet,
Baker Lake and other ports in western Hudson Bay.PHOTO COURTESY NEAS
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