Novatek Promotes Yamal LNG Chief

Novatek's board of directors (supervisory board) has appointed Evgeny Kot – the head of the Yamal LNG joint venture – to its management board, effective January 14 2019.

He will have the title 'deputy chairman of the management board, and LNG Director'. The announcement was made December 17. 

The promotion recognises Kot's role in bringing Yamal to fruition. On December 11 during a ceremony attended by Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev, Yamal LNG said it had reached its full 16.5mn mt/yr capacity in record time and on budget, with the launches of the second and third trains ahead of schedule by six months and more than a year respectively. 

Yamal LNG – a joint venture of Novatek, Total and China's Silk Road – started production from its third train last month.

Novatek is now looking to recruit partners and take the final investment decision in 2019 on an even larger LNG export venture called Arctic LNG-2 for possible start up late 2023. 

A quirk of Novatek's management board is that, apart from its CEO Leonid Viktorovich Mikhelson and two first deputy chairs, everyone else on the board is a 'deputy chairman.'