Christophe de Margerie, the world’s 1st top category ice-class LNG carrier, docked at Zeebrugge LNG terminal January 20, 2017, for a series of scheduled operations.
Christophe de Margerie will be delivered to Sovcomflot on 31 January, says Seafarers’ Union of Russia (SUR). The 'YamalMax' ship was built by Daewoo Shipbuilding Marine Engineering (DSME) in South Korea for its Russian shipowner Sovcomflot, a leading Russian shipping company.
Billed as the most powerful LNG carrier on the water, the azipod-propelled Christophe de Margerie is named for the Total chairman and chief executive killed in a plane crash in Moscow in 2014.
The $300m LNG ship, owned and operated by Sovcomflot is engineered to withstand temperatures as low as minus 50 degrees Celsius with a flat, rather than bulbous, prow designed to rupture ice up to 1.5 metres in depth.
The ship was launched in October 2016. The 172,000m³ vessel has been built to comply with the Polar Code, which has taken effect this year.
Gas carrier Christophe de Margerie is intended for the Yamal LNG project of NOVATEK and Total. The Yamal LNG project envisages the construction of an LNG plant with annual capacity of 16.5 million tons of LNG and 1 million ton of gas condensate based on the feedstock resources of the South-Tambeyskoye field.