Putin takes part in ceremony to load first Yamal LNG tanker
SABETTA PORT (Yamalo-Nenets autonomous district). Dec 8 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin took part in the ceremony marking the start to loading of the first tanker with LNG produced by the Yamal LNG project, an Interfax correspondent reported from the ceremony.
The Yamal LNG liquefaction plant began producing LNG on December 5. The project, which is being implemented on the Yamal Peninsula in the Arctic, is supplied with gas from the Yuzhno-Tambeyskoye field. The $27 billion project stipulates construction of three liquefaction trains, each with capacity to produce 5.5 million tonnes of LNG a year.
At the very beginning the project to produce LNG on the Yamal Peninsula had its skeptics. "This is certainly a difficult project and here in this room there are people, good specialists who at the beginning of this journey told me this shouldn't be done. I asked why, and they said one thing, then another, and another. There were a lot of reasons, and all of them very serious. But those who began the project took risks, and the risk was justified. And they got a result," he said.
"I congratulate you all, the whole enormous Novatek staff, all those who are working on this project. I congratulate you all on the loading of the first tanker, named in honor of our friend, Monsieur de Margerie. It's such a shame he is no longer with us, but we do have the tanker that bears his name. He was one of this project's trailblazers," Putin said.
Putin said he was confident the second and third trains of the Yamal LNG plant would be commissioned ahead of schedule, like the first. "This is only the first stage of the major 16.5-million tonne project. I'm sure the second stage will also be launched ahead of schedule, as early as next year, and the third stage probably also, at the end of next year, or beginning of 2019 at the latest. And what is especially important, a fiurth stage is also planned, one that uses Russian technologies alone, he said.
"This is of great importance to Russia. It's not only an important event for the country's energy sector, for gas production, liquefaction. It's a more extensive project, given that we have the major challenge of developing the Arctic and the Northern Shipping Route," he said.
"One of the main problems is personnel. Personnel have to be trained. And what would we have trained them for in the past if we did not have this area of expertise? But now we are working in this direction," he said.
This also means the development of nuclear-powered ship-building. "This is one more area of expertise that we possess and will be developing and enhancing, because here we need ships of a certain type," he said.
Russia is discussing the construction of "Leader" ice-breakers, which can break ice of any thickness. "This means the Northern Shipping Route can serve any part of the world all year round. It can already serve the East six or seven months and the West all year," Putin said.
"If we have the ice-breaker fleet I've spoken of then we can make shipments from here all year round," he said.
The Yamal LNG liquefaction plant began producing LNG on December 5. The project, which is being implemented on the Yamal Peninsula in the Arctic, is supplied with gas from the Yuzhno-Tambeyskoye field. The $27 billion project stipulates construction of three liquefaction trains, each with capacity to produce 5.5 million tonnes of LNG a year.