LOC London manages MWS project for LNG construction in the Arctic

LOC London acted as the marine warranty surveyor, providing independent third-party design review and approval of marine operations including load-out, sea fastening, transportation, shipping and offloading of cargo dedicated to the transportation of modules and modularized buildings for the Yamal LNG project. The project was located in Sabetta, in the estuary of the Ob River which is ice-bound for nine months of the year, north-east of the Yamal Peninsula, in Russia. It was one of the largest industrial undertakings and the first LNG development venture to be established in the Arctic. Ultimately the Yamal LNG project involved the construction of three LNG trains each with a capacity of 5.5 million tons per year, a vast gas terminal and the commissioning (a world first) of 16 icebreaker tankers, each able to transport 170,000 m³ LNG.

The Yamal LNG facilities were to be built in modules in different regions around the world and then transported to the Yamal Peninsula for on-site installing or assembling. The Modular construction was chosen notably to cope with the extreme climate conditions at Sabetta. The extreme arctic conditions make transport and construction in the region particularly challenging. Due to permafrost, the underground layer of soil at Sabetta stays frozen for at least two years at a time. The layer above thaws and freezes according to season. LOC’s involvement in the Yamal LNG project will continue until 2018.