Page 7 - FSUOGM Week 28 2021

FSUOGM COMMENTARY FSUOGM

well as a complaint to the European Commission that Washington would provide an extra $1bn in
about possible violations of antitrust legislation. financing for Three Seas.
Overgas maintains 2,100 km of Bulgaria’s US President Joe Biden has in contrast shied
gas distribution network and supplies gas to away from actively promoting the interests of US
51 municipalities. It is the biggest independent LNG exporters, amid growing antipathy towards
natural gas supplier and trader on the Bulgarian the industry among voters. Nevertheless, Wash-
market. ington helped facilitate a preliminary deal being
Linden said the deal aligned with the Three reached in March this year between ExxonMo-
Seas Initiative, established in 2015. Involving bil, US floating LNG operator Excelerate Energy
Bulgaria and 11 other EU states, the initiative and Albania’s government on developing a
was set up largely to counter countries’ eco- regasification terminal in the Balkan country.
nomic reliance on Russia. A key focus is support
for gas infrastructure investments, with the cur- Greek hub plansThe completion of its gas link
rent roster of projects it supports including a gas with Bulgaria will help establish Greece as a key
link being built between Poland and Lithuania, transit route and trading hub for natural gas.
planned LNG terminals in Croatia and Estonia, Since early 2020, Greece has also been transit-
and the Ionic Adriatic Pipeline (IAP), slated to ing gas from Azerbaijan on route to Italy via the
run through the Balkans. Southern Gas Corridor.
While dressed as a regional development Greece produces little gas of its own, relying
initiative, Three Seas is also implicitly aimed at primarily on supplies from Russia and Azer-
expanding the market for US gas in Europe. It baijan as well as LNG deliveries arriving at the
had strong backing from the Trump administra- Revithoussa regasification terminal near Athens.
tion, which was more openly supportive of the In addition to IGB, the country’s hub role will be
US LNG industry. In February last year former further bolstered by the possible construction of
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced a new pipeline from Bulgaria to Serbia. ™

PIPELINES & TRANSPORT

Sakhalin Energy shuts LNG plant

for repairs, overhaul

RUSSIA SAKHALIN Energy has shut down its gas pro- Piltun-Astokhskaya B platform, resulting in a
duction and LNG facilities in the Russian Far reduction in LNG shipments. The consortium
The project has had East for scheduled repairs and modernisation has three offshore platforms in total that fuel the
several downtime work that will continue into August, the consor- LNG plant and deliver oil to Asian markets via
periods this year, tium reported on July 12. tanker.
but will run without Sakhalin Energy, whose shareholders include Russia’s other main LNG plant, the
interruption in 2022. Gazprom, Royal Dutch Shell and Japanese com- Novatek-operated 16.5mn tpy Yamal LNG facil-
panies Mitsui and Mitsubishi, said the work had ity in the Arctic, is also scheduled for annual
been factored in its LNG shipping plan for the maintenance between August 1 and 19. At a time
year. The Sakhalin LNG terminal has a 9.6mn when gas prices are soaring amid hot weather,
tonne per year (tpy) nameplate liquefaction weak LNG supply and increased storage needs,
capacity, and primarily supplies gas to the Jap- Gazprom’s Nord Stream and Yamal-Europe
anese market. pipeline are also due to go offline for mainte-
During the downtime, Sakhalin Energy said nance this month, following downtime at the
its key facilities would undergo an overhaul and company’s TurkStream pipeline in June. ™
modernisation. This includes the Lunskaya-A
gas platform and port infrastructure in Prigor-
odnoye, it said. Thanks to this work, the project
should operate without interruptions in 2022.
Specifically, two of the four loading arms used
for transfering LNG into tankers are due to be
replaced, and a compressor unit at one of the
LNG plant’s liquefaction trains will be repaired.
Sakhalin Energy already carried out repairs
in March at the LNG plant that lasted a month.
And between June 1 and 21, it repaired the

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