Fedor-Litke

As the summer maintenance season has started, the first Arc7 ice-class gas carriers in service of the Yamal LNG project have arrived at the Fayard A/S shipyard in Odense. The 'Nikolay Urvantsev' (IMO: 9750660), chartered to Novatek’s Yamal LNG project, arrived at the drydock on June 26, 2025, and sailed around a week later. The Arc7 LNG carrier 'Fedor Litke, operated by Dynagas, arrived at the Fayard A/S yard on July 17, following a delivery at Dunkerque, and remained in drydock as of July 24. Repairs and maintenance schedules have been significantly condensed for the Arctic LNG carriers due to their harsh operating conditions along Russia’s Northern Sea Route. The Damen ship repair focuses on hull maintenance, which the LNG carriers regularly require breaking a path through thick Arctic sea ice. The Damen Shiprepair stated that the company was in compliance with all international sanctions legislation against Russia. As the vessels have not been directly sanctioned by the U.S. or the EU the yards’ activities do not violate international law. Though procuring spare parts has become increasingly difficult, suppliers of gas chromatographs and flow meters used on LNG carriers have placed restrictions on the end user and no longer deliver parts to the vessels of the Yamal fleet, related to the fear of sanctions. A number of sanctioned LNG carriers, including an Arc7 and several Arc4 ice-class vessels, have recently resorted to receiving maintenance at Chinese yards. The Arc7 LNG carrier 'Christophe de Margerie' spent months at a Zhoushan Island yard east of Shanghai in summer 2024. Currently two additional sanctioned Russian gas carriers, the 'Sputnik Energy' (IMO: 9256602) and the 'Nova Energy' (IMO: 9324277), remained at Zhoushan yards.

Greenpeace conducted two protests, trying to hinder two LNG carriers from the USA and Russia, respectively, urging the EU to expedite their phasing out of Russian fuels, as well as to denounce fossil fuels altogether. On March 27, 2025, eight Greenpeace volunteers temporarily blocked the 'Marvel Swallow' on its way to Zeebrugge, en route from Louisiana, with a shipment of LNG. The group launched out of their mothership, the 'Arctic Sunrise', and encircled the Marvel Swallow, displaying banners having the likenesses of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in addition to slogans such as “Their gas your cash.” Greenpeace claimed that they were conducting the protest to remind the EU that their reliance on fossil fuels was fostering geopolitical instability and hurting households due to skyrocketing fuel prices. The 'Marvel Swallow' managed to dock in Zeebrugge later that same day. Already on March 26, a prrotest was carried out against the 'Fedor Litke', en route from Sabetta in Russia. The goal behind these protests was to stop fuel carriers from transferring fuel to the EU. Greenpeace is urging the EU to completely phase out fossil gas by the year 2035. Photos: https://media.greenpeace.org/collection/27MZIFJV9UE_5?_gl=1*1jty749*_up*MQ..*_ga*MjY3MjQ0ODE0LjE3NDMxNTM2MjQ.*_ga_94MRTN8HG4*MTc0MzE1MzYyNC4xLjAuMTc0MzE1MzYyNC4wLjAuMTk0MTExNTI1MQ..

On Nov 14, 2017, the bunker tanker "Zaliv Amerika" allided with the "Fedor Litke" while unmooring from the vessel after bunkering operations at 3.40 p.m. The brand new LNG tanker, which was to set sail for its maiden voyage to Sabetta in the Arctic Sea, suffered a hull breach of about 0,2 meters length one meter above the waterline in ballast tank 4 area.