Page 9 - GLNG Week 33 2021
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Gazprom Neft completes Russia’s first LNG bunkering vessel
PIPELINES & TRANSPORT
RUSSIA’S state-run Gazprom Neft has completed construction of the country’s first LNG bunker- ing vessel, the company said on August 12.
The company said the 5,800 cubic metre capacity vessel, called the Dmitry Mendeleev, would shortly begin its maiden voyage towards its fixed berthing in the Baltic Sea.
The final stage of the vessel’s construction involved testing of gas and cryogenic equipment, loading systems, and LNG storage and offload- ing pumps and compressors
Noting that LNG would play a “key role” in the decarbonisation of maritime transport over the medium term, Gazprom Neft deputy chair- man Anatoly Cherner added: “In successfully implementing Russia’s first project to build an LNG bunkering vessel, Gazprom Neft has, effec- tively, created a new market sector for the coun- try – in marine gas motor fuel – from scratch. This year will see us starting commercial LNG operations in the Baltic region.”
Gazprom Neft noted that the ship adopted the Arc4 reinforced hull, which means it can navigate ice of up to 80 cm in thickness.
The ship’s onboard power plant has been
designed with a goal of zero emissions and will use tank-return gas (TRG) – or boil-off gas – as fuel. The company added that all of the LNG-bunkering equipment was fully compliant with Marine Pollution (Marpol) and ECO-S environmental standards.
Gazprom Neft announced at the end of May that the vessel had completed its sea trials, during which its main propulsion systems, navigation equipment and control systems were tested.
The Dmitry Mendeleev is expected to provide transportation and bunkering of low-tonnage LNG fuel at ports in the Gulf of Finland as well as the Baltic Sea ports of St Petersburg, Ust-Luga, Primorsk, Kaliningrad and Vyborg.
Gazprom Neft and Russian shipping major Sovcomflot agreed in June 2019 to co-operate on LNG bunkering. Under the terms of the deal, the two sides agreed to working towards supplying Sovcomflot’s tanker fleet with LNG fuel.
The agreement came just days after the com- pany revealed that it had concluded another co-operation agreement with Rosmorport, this time for the management of LNG bunkering for the Ust-Luga-Baltiysk rail passenger ferry.
Sakhalin-2 restarts LNG production
PROJECTS & COMPANIES
RUSSIAN LNG producer Sakhalin Energy has resumed production from the first train of its 11.49mn tonne per year (tpy) Sakhalin-2 project after completing a major maintenance programme.
Sakhalin Energy said on August 18 that while train one had been restarted, post-shutdown commissioning continued at the project’s sec- ond train. It is not immediately clear when oper- ations will resume.
The turnaround campaign encompassed the Lunskoye-A offshore platform, the onshore processing facility (OPF), the OPF compression construction site, the second booster station as well as the Prigorodnoye production complex.
Sakhalin Energy announced on July 12 that it had launched a major overhaul of the facility, leading to the complete and simultaneous shut- down of all the project’s gas production assets.
Commenting on some of the operation’s technical challenges, deputy production direc- tor Alexander Singurov said this week that the company had replaced two out of the four load- ing arms at the LNG jetty, each of which weigh 77 tonnes.
Singurov added: “This complex operation was carried out using Pijlgracht, a special- ised vessel equipped with two main cranes with a lifting capacity of up to 700 tonnes each.”
Sakhalin Energy’s head of engineering and maintenance, Evgeny Udovenko, said that because the company had brought forward work originally slated for both later this year and next, it now intended to skip any major maintenance work next year.
He added that this would allow Sakhalin Energy to reduce its operational expenditure, plan future activities more efficiently and transi- tion the entire integrated gas chain to a four-year maintenance cycle going forward. The executive added that this approach meant each train would be shut down once every two years.
When the company announced the planned turnaround programme last month, it said this year’s LNG and oil shipment schedule were aligned with the work. However, Reuters quoted two unnamed Singapore-based traders as saying that up to five LNG cargoes had been delayed from the plant.
Week 33 20•August•2021 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P9
