Page 9 - FSUOGM Week 10 2021

FSUOGM COMMENTARY FSUOGM

gas in the liquefaction process. This gas is then gas business and improving energy efficiency.
re-used as fuel at the facility, helping to reduce Meanwhile, Novatek’s main domestic rival
emissions. Gazprom announced this week it would start
Novatek is also working on a plan to feed blue sending carbon-neutral LNG to Europe “in the
hydrogen into Yamal LNG’s gas-fired power near future.”
generators. And it has teamed up with German “There are not many carbon-neutral LNG
energy group Uniper to look at developing an cargoes shipped around the world yet, and we
integrated chain for producing, transporting are taking our first steps here, too,” the head of
and supplying hydrogen. Uniper’s power plants LNG at the company’s export arm Gazprom
in Russia and Western Europe are seen as poten- Export, Pavel Sedov, said during a presentation
tial recipients for the fuel. of a Shell LNG outlook. “And I would like to
thank Shell for their constructive partnership
Other Russian efforts approach which helps us find ourselves in this
Novatek is not the only Russian oil and gas com- segment.”
pany taking steps to improve its environmental The shipment of the first carbon-neutral
credentials. cargo “will be a definitive achievement and the
State oil major Rosneft recently presented first step to a more environmentally orientated
its 2035 carbon management plan to investors, portfolio of gas products,” he said.
targeting a 30% reduction in its upstream Scope Gazprom and Royal Dutch Shell work
1 and 2 emissions over the next 15 years. The together at the 11mn tpy Sakhalin LNG plant
company is also seeking to prevent 20mn tpy of in the Russian Far East, alongside Japan’s Mit-
CO2-equivalent emissions, while making cuts to sui and Mitsubishi. But Gazprom is developing
its existing emissions, currently at over 80mn tpy. a second, 13mn tpy facility in Ust-Luga, on the
It wants to develop renewables and other clean Baltic Sea shore, with its private Russian partner
technologies including hydrogen, as well as nat- Rusgazdobycha. That project is due to deliver its
ural carbon sinks, while building up its natural first gas to markets in 2024-2025. ™

PIPELINES & TRANSPORT

Nord Stream 2 could take until end-

September to finish

RUSSIA CONSTRUCTION of Russia’s trouble-stricken Nord Stream 2 is not all that surprising and not
Nord Stream 2 pipeline project is due to resume critical to the business case of Gazprom, but
Pipelaying had been off Denmark later this month, the Danish Energy nonetheless negative, moving a potential catalyst
scheduled to resume Agency has said, although the work could drag for the stock from late spring until early autumn,”
in Danish waters in the for most of the year. analysts at BCS Global Markets (GM) said in a
middle of January. Pipelaying had been scheduled to resume research note.
in Danish waters in the middle of January, the Nord Stream 2’s construction is proceed-
month after work was restarted off Germany. ing despite the US’s sanctions regime, which
Construction ground to a halt at the end of prompted Swiss contractor Allseas to with-
2019, after the US imposed its first sanctions on draw from the project in December 2019.
the project. Additional sanctions imposed earlier this year
The Danish section of the pipeline between and the looming threat of further ones have
Bornholm Island in the Baltic Sea and the Ger- led a number of European contractors, equip-
man maritime border could take as long as the ment suppliers and other companies to leave
end of September to complete, a notice published the project.
by the Danish Maritime Authority has indicated. Among them was Norway-based independ-
Previously completion had been anticipated in ent certification body DNV GL, which halted its
April. Two Russian-flagged pipelaying vessels, verification activities at Nord Stream 2. The Nord
Akademik Cherskiy and Fortuna, are operating Stream 2 operator had hired DNV GL to “verify
in the area. the safety and technical integrity” of the project
A further 110 km of pipe needs to be laid off and to issue a certificate of compliance upon its
Denmark and 28 km in German waters, accord- “satisfactory completion.”
ing to the Nord Stream 2 operating company, Third-party certification, confirming that
a wholly owned subsidiary of Russia’s state- Nord Stream 2 was designed, fabricated, installed
owned Gazprom. After pipelaying is finished, and commissioned in accordance with “applica-
the project will require above-water tie-ins of ble technical, quality and safety requirements, is
unconnected pipe sections, as well as design needed before the DEA can grant a 'certification
verification. of conformity,' enabling pipeline commissioning
“The delay in the physical completion of to start.” ™

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