Page 148 - RusRPTJun21

project. The project ($21bn capex) is to raise $11bn debt, split roughly equally among the Russian, Chinese and Japanese / European sources.
Novatek’s launch of Arctic LNG-2’s Train-3 may be accelerated to 2025 vs 2026, quoting Novatek CEO Leonid Mikhelson in statements to President Putin. Additionally, Mikhelson confirmed the existing launch schedule of Train-1 and Train-2 of 2023 and 2024, respectively. On-budget and ahead-of-schedule would parallel Yamal LNG success. Novatek appears to be aiming to repeat its outstanding performance at Yamal LNG, where it launched Train-3 a year ahead of schedule after an on-time launch of Train-1 and an acceleration of the Train-2 schedule by several months. The issue at Arctic LNG-2, however, is that Novatek’s Murmansk LNG construction center only has two dry docks for building the Gravity-Based-Structures (GBS), essentially giant barges, on which the liquefaction trains are to be assembled. The two-year gap between the planned launch of Train-2 in 2024 was to allow for the construction of the GBS for Train-1 to be completed before beginning the pouring of the GBS for Train-3. From this we can infer that the company has learned to speed up the process of GBS construction.
Russia’s energy giant Novatek said on April 29 it has inked 20-year agreements with the shareholders of its Arctic LNG 2 project on the sale and purchase of the entire volume of liquified natural gas.
The LNG sales from the plant’s first liquefaction train are planned to commence in 2023, according to the company.
Mikhelson said earlier that the Arctic LNG 2 plant is 39% complete and will be launched as planned.
Arctic LNG 2 envisages constructing three LNG liquefaction trains of 6.6mn tons per annum each, as well as cumulative gas condensate production capacity of 1.6mn tons per annum. The total LNG capacity of the three liquefaction trains will be 19.8mn tons. The first train of Arctic LNG 2 is 53% ready and is scheduled to start operations in two years.
Novatek owns the majority stake (60%) in the project, with minority stakes held by foreign companies. The list of foreign investors includes French oil and gas company Total (10%), Chinese firms CNPC (10%) and CNOOC (10%), and the Japanese consortium of Mitsui and JOGMEC (10%).
● Lukoil
Russian oil major Lukoil is believed to have reacted rapidly and responsibly to a 90 tonne spill of oil reported at the weekend, analysts report on May 18.
Investors are understandably nervous about oil spills after a power unit belonging to mining behemoth Norilsk Nickel spilled over 20,000 tonnes of oil into rivers in the Pyasino region flowing to the Kara Sea in June 2020, making it one of the worst ecological catastrophes in the history of the Arctic region. The spill was declared a federal
148 RUSSIA Country Report June 2021 www.intellinews.com