Russia moved closer to deploying its second domestically built Arc7 icebreaking LNG carrier on Thursday with the naming of the Konstantin Posyet at the Far Eastern Zvezda shipyard. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin attended the ceremony by video link, a signal that the 172,600 cubic meter vessel is approaching commercial service.
The carrier is the second Arc7 LNG ship completed at Zvezda for Novatek's Arctic LNG 2 project, following sister ship Alexey Kosygin which entered service in December 2025. Konstantin Posyet recently finished sea trials and is expected to begin operations in the coming months. The hull is about 300 meters long, 48.8 meters wide, and rated to push through ice up to two meters thick.
Once the new tanker enters service, Novatek will have three Arc7 carriers available for Arctic LNG 2, including the Christophe de Margerie, built in South Korea and redeployed from the Yamal LNG project after sanctions disrupted the original fleet plan. Sources familiar with the construction program said a third Zvezda hull, likely Pyotr Stolypin or Sergei Witte, should launch before the end of this year, lifting the fleet to four carriers ahead of the 2026 to 2027 winter navigation season.
The Arc7 program has been delayed repeatedly since 2022 after Western sanctions cut off supplies of critical equipment, including the cargo tank membranes Zvezda had previously sourced from foreign vendors. Konstantin Posyet's tanks had already been installed when sanctions hit, which spared it the worst of the disruption. The remaining hulls, Pyotr Stolypin, Sergei Witte and Viktor Chernomyrdin, may prove harder to complete, though Russia is reportedly developing a domestic membrane containment system.
The fleet expansion lines up with plans by Rosatom and Sovcomflot to run year round shipments along the Northern Sea Route this winter. Sovcomflot Chief Executive Igor Tonkovidov called the vessel another milestone for Russia's high tech merchant fleet. For LNG buyers in Asia, additional Arc7 capacity raises the prospect of a steadier flow of cargoes from Arctic LNG 2 even as G7 sanctions on the project and its vessels continue to tighten.