11 Dec 2018 17:39

Yamal LNG achieves full capacity at liquefied gas plant

SABETTA. Dec 11 (Interfax) - Yamal LNG has fully commissioned the third train of its liquefied gas plant, achieving full capacity, an Interfax correspondent reports from the launch ceremony.

"This is a very special event for the whole gas industry, for international partners and for international cooperation," Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said at the launch ceremony in Sabetta in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District.

"This is a unique project. More than 60,000 people and some 55 enterprises from our country worked on it. It was built in extremely challenging conditions in the Arctic Circle and was completed a year early. This is a very large project, a very costly one and a landmark event," Medvedev said.

"Importantly, Yamal LNG will stimulate the development pf the Northern Sea Route," he said.

The total nameplate capacity of all three Yamal LNG trains is 16.5 million tonnes per annum, or 5.5 million tonnes per LNG train.

Yamal LNG is supplied with natural gas from the South Tambey field.

A fourth, experimental 900,000-950,000 tpy train will be built at the end of 2019 using Novatek's proprietary Arctic Cascade technology.

Novatek CEO Leonid Mikhelson led Medvedev on a tour of the facility.

Mikhelson briefed the prime minister on the technological operation of the trains that are already in service as well as the planned fourth train that will employ Russian technology.

He also spoke about a new Novatek project, Arctic LNG 2, which is expected to use gravity-based foundations that will be cast at the Center for Construction of Large-Tonnage Marine Structures. The first will be ready in Q2 2019, Mikhelson said, adding that the company plans to sign the relevant agreement with an engineering company in Rome on December 19.