Russia’s largest independent gas producer Novatek has successfully delivered the first train of its flagship Arctic LNG 2 project on the western shore of the Gydan Peninsula in West Siberia, which is slated to start producing liquefied natural gas before the end of this year.
The 640,000-tonne structure that sits on a concrete gravity based structure (GBS), has been transported from a Novatek-run specialist shipyard near Russia’s northern port of Murmansk, known as Belokamenka.
The train that arrived this weekend is being positioned for permanent installation on the seabed and then will be connected to onshore infrastructure to enter into the final commissioning phase, a company spokesperson said.
Most of the units at the first train, which has an annual capacity of 6.6 million tonnes per annum of LNG, were pre-commissioned in the Belokamenka yard ahead of the journey.
The onshore supporting infrastructure includes connecting pipelines, an administrative and office module, power generation and gas feeding facilities that are 99% complete.
The train’s operations also will be supported by an onshore gas processing and treatment plant.
The plant will process up to 18 billion cubic metres of natural gas that will arrive from the onshore Utrenneye field on the Gydan Peninsula, where 70 production wells have been drilled.
Novatek still plans to install the second and third trains of Arctic LNG 2 before the end of 2026, despite a need to reconfigure the project’s power supply after international sanctions made it impossible to use gas-fired turbines and other equipment supplied by the West.
Speaking to Russian-state television channel Vesti, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said that once Arctic LNG 2’s three trains are commissioned and reach full capacity, Russia hopes to grow its share in global LNG deliveries to 12% from the estimated 9% today.
Arctic LNG 2 deputy director Dmitry Kadulin said the operator expects to be ready to produce first LNG at the train before the end of this year, according to Vesti.
The project’s shareholders are Novatek with a 60% interest, France’s TotalEnergies with 10%, China National Petroleum Corporation with 10%, China National Offshore Oil Corporation with 10%, and Japan Arctic LNG, a consortium of Japan’s Mitsui Group and Jogmec, with the remaining 10% interest.
