Russia speeding up work on national standards for LNG due to sanctions

YEKATERINBURG. July 18 (Interfax) - Russia's Federal Agency for Technical Regulation and Metrology or Rosstandart plans to develop about 220 national standards for technologies and equipment related to liquefied natural gas by 2025 instead of the 111 that were originally planned, agency head Anton Shalaev told Interfax.

"Since 2022, there has been an absolutely unprecedented tightening of sanctions in all areas. In this regard, we realized that the [currently existing] plan for developing standards for LNG and related technologies is already somewhat irrelevant. Many new issues have appeared, for which there is an urgent need to develop standards," he said.

The first plan for the development of standards for LNG was developed by Rosstandart together with the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade in 2019. It contained 111 national standard positions which previously did not exist at all, Shalaev said

A new version of the comprehensive LNG standardization program was approved in June, he said. At the moment, about 20 standards have already been developed, and about 200 more are to come.

"First of all, we cover absolutely the entire range of tanks that transport LNG, which is a dangerous cargo, and the issue of safety, albeit through national standards, is quite important. We have a number of standards for berthing equipment associated with gas carrier ships. This is a very topical issue," Shalaev said.

At the same time, the terms of the standardization program in the field of LNG have remained unchanged. The agency plans to complete the development of national standards for this area by 2025.