MARINE TRANSPORT VESSELS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF GAS FIELDS OF THE ARCTIC

This article describes the main LNG projects in the Arctic and transport ships for the transportation of gas. Consumption of liquefied natural gas is growing every year. Russia has an advantageous geographical location, especially for the export of liquefied natural gas. This fact makes the prospective Arctic oil and gas fields. But this is not always possible. To cope with harsh climatic conditions account for many years to develop the technical means, capable of operating in the Arctic region. Vessels to transport LNG are among the most complex among the transport ships. They become even more difficult when we are talking about the operation in harsh climatic conditions such as the Arctic. Russia and other shipbuilding countries have quite a lot of experience in the design and operation of ships ice navigation. But the first Arctic LNG carrier to be built this year alone, though the commercial operation of the ships
began in the late 60-ies of XX century. This is due to several factors, primarily the difficulty of the arrangement of gas deposits in the Arctic circle. Russia has long been trying to develop its gas fields in the Arctic. The first major project – the Shtokman field was suspended because of a failure of implementation. Yamal LNG is the only project which has been launched into operation. Thanks to him we will perfect the transport system of LNG carriers specialized in heavy ice conditions. The LNG carriers for this project include a cargo storage system membrane type (GTT), one of the two major types of LNG carriers (second spherical, Moss). At the moment there is no clear understanding which of the two systems suitable for Arctic operations.