Russian LNG Project Starts Train 3

Russian independent natural gas producer Novatek has started up production from the third and final train of its Yamal LNG project, it said November 22. The total nameplate capacity of the whole project is 16.5mn metric tons/yr, split between three trains each of 5.5mn mt/yr.

“We have successfully launched all three LNG trains at our flagship Yamal LNG project according to our revised early launch schedule, clearly confirming the uniqueness of Yamal LNG in the global LNG industry,” Novatek CEO Leonid Mikhelson said. Other liquefaction projects in the world however have launched earlier than the operators had signalled.

The third LNG train completed more than a year ahead of the planned original schedule. The first and second LNG trains at Yamal LNG started operation at the end of 2017 and in July 2018 respectively.

Yamal LNG is operated by Novatek (50.1%); partners are Total (20%), and from China, state-owned state CNPC (20%) and investment fund Silk Road Fund (9.9%).

Next year the company will decide whether or not to build Arctic-2 LNG, whose shareholder structure has not been fixed but which will also be majority owned by Novatek at 60% and also have the French major Total as a partner with 10%. The other shareholders will be on board before the final investment decision and could include Saudi Aramco, Novatek said in October. Total has expressed an interest in at least 10% of any future LNG export plans, in addition to the 19% it has in Novatek.

That plant, confusingly called Arctic-2 LNG, is on the Gydan rather than the Yamal Peninsula and it will be a lot cheaper to build, as the new design will be a gravity-based system, and not require piling. Each train will be larger too, at 6.6mn mt/yr compared with Yamal LNG's 5.5mn mt/yr, although the Yamal trains so far have been operating at 5% or 7% above that, thanks to the freezing air conditions prevailing in Russia's far north for much of the year. Combined, the Yamal and Arctic plants will be able to produce about 38mn mt/year.