YEKATERINBURG, March 29. /TASS/. A gas carrying tanker, test-filled with liquefied natural gas, for the first time arrived in the Sabetta port (Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District) along the Northern Sea Route, the District’s press service told TASS on Wednesday.

"The first gas tanker passed the customs procedures," the press service said.

"The customs service cleared the first in the world gas tanker of the Arc7 ice class The Christophe de Margerie," the customs said. "The tanker, filled with a test amount of liquefied natural gas (LNG), has passed the test."

The Christophe de Margerie is the first of 15 gas tankers for the Yamal LNG project, the press service said.

"It can work at temperatures up to minus 52 degrees (Celsius) and can go through ice up to 2.1 meters thick," the press service added. "The tanker carries 172.6 thousand cubic meters of liquefied natural gas."

Yamal LNG project

The Yamal LNG Company is constructing a plant for production of liquefied natural gas with the annual capacity of 16.5 million tonnes at the resource base of the Yuzhno-Tambeiskoye field. The Yamal LNG plant is planned to go operational in 2017. The project’s cost is 27 billion dollars.

Practically all the future output - 96% of LNG to be produced at the plant - has been contracted already.

Shareholders of Yamal LNG are: Novatek (50.1%), Total (20%), CNPC (20%) and the Silk Road Fund (9.9%).