The keel laying ceremony of the lead vessel of Arc7 LNG carriers was held at Dry Dock of Zvezda SSK territory.

A symbolic nameplate was attached to the keel section of the Vessel. The third LNG carrier will be named after Sergei Witte, a Russian statesman, financier, founder of Russian industrialization.

Contracts for the construction of 15 Arc7 ice class LNG carriers, intended for the cargo export from the “Arctic LNG-2” project, were signed by SSK Zvezda and the companies of the VEB.RF group and PAO SovComflot in December 2019 - July 2020. The steel cutting for the lead Vessel of the series was begun at the Shipyard in November 2020.

SSK Zvezda is the first Russian shipyard implementing a project for the construction of such vessels. Ice class LNG Carriers are designed to transport LNG and are capable of operating in arctic conditions due to the Arc7 strengthened ice class and icebreaking capability up to 2.1 meters. These are Vessels of significant weight and dimensions: the length of the Vessel is 300 m, beam moulded is 48.8 m, deadweight is 81,000 tons. The Vessel propulsion system capacity is 45 MW.

A distinctive feature of LNG Carriers is the availability of Mark III membrane-type LNG storage system, which license for construction was obtained by the shipyard for the first time in the country, having successfully passed the audit of Gaztransport & Technigaz (GTT) - French engineering company specializing in the development and licensing of the construction of cryogenic membrane containment systems dedicated to the transport and storage of liquefied gas.

In addition, the Vessel will be equipped with three unique PODs, the production of which is situated on SSK Zvezda territory at VRK Sapphire Plant.