OREANDA-NEWS. July 19, 2011. NOVATEK (NOVATEK and/or the Company) has announced the inaugural voyage of a high-tonnage Panamax class tanker, which has navigated a new route north of the New Siberian Islands.   On 29 June 2011, the tanker “Perseverance” set sail from the Russian port of Murmansk carrying a cargo of 60 thousand tons of NOVATEK’s stable gas condensate destined for consumers in China. Icebreaking support for this voyage was provided by Russia’s Atomflot, a government-owned shipping entity, and the tanker is now on course to its final destination.

NOVATEK is the first company to utilize the Northern Sea Route in the 2011 summer navigational period.  Between June and October 2011, the Company plans to ship six or seven cargos of stable gas condensate, produced by the Purovsky Gas Condensate Processing Plant, to markets in the Asian-Pacific region via the Northern Sea Route.

Transporting hydrocarbons through the Northern Sea Route is expected to reduce the costs and delivery time for shipments from Russia’s northern ports to consumers in the Asian-Pacific region. The use of the Northern Sea Route provides new technical information and navigational experience for hydrocarbon transportation under Arctic conditions and is an integral part of NOVATEK’s logistical strategy to develop prospective fields in the Yamal peninsula.

In 2010, NOVATEK organized the historic voyage of a high-tonnage tanker (Aframax class), which delivered the Company’s stable gas condensate from Russia’s Murmansk port to China’s Ningbo Port in 22 days, approximately half the time required by the traditional shipping route through the Suez Canal.