A Korean shipbuilder recently won orders to build icebreaker natural gas tanker ships for use at Russia’s Yamal natural gas project, worth some KRW 5 trillion. Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) won the tender to build nine icebreakers to transport liquefied natural gas (LNG) for the megaproject.

With the Yamal project, Russia aims to exploit 1.250 trillion cubic feet of natural gas that is buried near the Yamal Peninsula in western Siberia. Russia’s largest gas corporation, Novatek, Total of France and China’s Comprehensive National Power (CNP) will jointly invest USD 200 billion into the project.

Daewoo signed contracts with representatives from Teekay of Canada and from Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) of Japan on July 8 in Seoul, agreeing to build the icebreaker tankers.

Under the agreement, Daewoo will build six 170,000 cubic feet Arc7 ice-class LNG tankers for Teekay and three similar icebreakers for MOL. The estimated value of the nine ships amounts to more than KRW 2.8 trillion.



An Arc7 LNG tanker is 299 meters long and 50 meters wide. The ship can break ice as thick as 2.1 meters, common in the Arctic Ocean. This is so far the largest ice-class LNG tanker in the world.

For safety purposes and for improved functioning of the facilities on board, Daewoo uses in its design special technologies to protect the ship's crew from temperatures as low as 52 degrees Celsius below zero. For stable sailing, the ship is also equipped with propellers that can rotate a full 360 degrees. Daewoo also applied a special three-set POD propulsion system which can support easy steering and propelling of the massive ship.

By Yoon Sojung
Korea.net Staff Writer
arete@korea.kr