Gazprom, Partners Give no Clues on Sakhalin FID
Russian giant Gazprom in recent days met senior executives from Shell and Mitsubishi, at separate meetings in St Petersburg, to discuss the trio’s Sakhalin Energy LNG venture.
None though gave any clear indication of when a final investment decision will be taken in a long-discussed, third Sakhalin Energy liquefaction train, or if this is being impacted by US plans to widen sanctions.
Sakhalin Energy shareholders are Gazprom 50% per cent plus one share; Shell 27.5% less one share; Japan’s Mitsui 12.5% and Mitsubishi 10%. In 2016 the joint venture produced 10.93mn metric tons of LNG, from its existing two-train complex, and almost 43mn bbls of oil/condensate.
Noting its November 17 meeting with Japan’s Mitsubishi, Gazprom said both “reviewed issues related to joint efforts under the Sakhalin II project, including construction of the third train of the LNG plant” and that they discussed co-operation prospects in the LNG sector.
Of its November 20 meeting, Gazprom said that it and Shell discussed joint efforts in the LNG sector, plans to a third Sakhalin LNG train, and progress on a joint study relating to the Baltic LNG project; and that both also addressed the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, in which Shell is one of five western financing partners to Gazprom.
Shell in June indicated that front-end engineering (Feed) stage of train 3 project preparation was “nearly completed.” It told NGW November 21 that the Feed has since been completed, but said that no further information was available at the moment on timings and target dates for the T3 project.
Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller attended both meetings, while Mitsubishi Corp was represented by CEO Takehiko Kakiuchi, and Shell by its board-level director of integrated gas, LNG and new energies Maarten Wetselaar (shown on the right in the photo above, courtesy of Gazprom).
Two months ago UK contractor Petrofac confirmed it had won an order to revamp existing Sakhalin Energy facilities; however it noted this did not include work necessary for a planned third LNG train.