Projects by Russian companies in freezing seas will require at least 52 additional ice-class vessels by the end of the decade. According to Vedomosti, citing a presentation by the Central Research Institute of the Maritime Fleet, LNG carriers and oil tankers are the largest items on this list.
The minimum requirement is estimated at five LNG carriers with a volume of 174 thousand cubic meters, three LNG carriers for liquefied petroleum gases of 50-55 thousand cubic meters, and 10 oil tankers with a deadweight of 120 thousand tons. In addition, three universal dry cargo vessels of 40 thousand tons, two gas condensate tankers, and another 29 vessels not tied to specific projects are declared. These figures essentially highlight the gap between the ambitions of Arctic extraction and the actual capabilities of shipyards.
The key risk is not in financing, but in available slipways. Russian factories are already loaded with orders for the Northern Sea Route and cabotage, and only a few enterprises in the world, including SSK Zvezda, are capable of building large-capacity ice-class LNG carriers. Some hulls will likely have to be placed at foreign shipyards, which again raises the issue of the sanction resilience of the entire logistics chain. If the fleet is not ready on time, production at Arctic fields risks hitting a transport dead end.