Page 11 - GLNG Week 15 2022

GLNG EUROPE GLNG

EU’s fifth sanction package to

curb Russian LNG ambitions

POLICY THE ban on supplies of liquefied natural gas Russia’s official goal of achieving 100% localisa-
(LNG) production equipment to Russia that is tion of LNG equipment by 2030 and exclusively
part of the European Union’s fifth sanction pack- rely on the EU and US solutions, according to
age is likely to severely damage Russia’s LNG Kommersant.
ambitions, as key technology for large-scale So far, the only example of an LNG line
liquefaction is only produced in “unfriendly” based entirely on Russian equipment has been
countries, Kommersant daily wrote on April 11. Novatek’s fourth line of the Yamal LNG plant,
Russia hoped to produce 140mn tonnes of with a capacity of 0.9mn tonnes per year (tpy).
LNG by 2035, soaring from 28mn tonnes annu- But a lot of difficulties arose during its construc-
ally at the moment, with the share of Russia’s tion and, according to the Kommersant sources,
LNG in the global market at 20%. Russia’s sec- it is still prone to disruptions. The capacity of this
ond-largest gas producer Novatek is the main line is also negligible compared with 5-7.5mn tpy
driver of this strategy. of large LNG plants.
The analysts surveyed by Kommersant now Unnamed sources told the daily that
warn that Novatek’s Arctic LNG-2 and Gaz- Novatek’s Arctic LNG-2 has already contracted
prom’s Baltic LNG projects that are already that main equipment for its two remaining lines
under construction are in question, as the EU under construction, but it has yet to be delivered.
ban also applies retroactively to existing supply Bloomberg cited the head of TotalEnergies
contracts. Patrick Pouyanne (Total still holds a 10% stake in
The list of equipment banned by the EU the project) in saying that although the first plat-
includes hydrocarbon separation plants for form of Arctic LNG-2 was 98% ready and had a
LNG production, cryogenic heat exchangers and high chance of completion, risks exist, as some
pumps. It also includes the broad definition of equipment has not yet been delivered to Russia.
“process plants for cooling and liquefying gas in The second phase of the plant is 40% complete,
the LNG process”. while construction of the third line has not yet
Both Novatek and Gazprom are far from started. ™

Week 15 15•April•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P11