Sakhalin Energy, operator of Sakhalin-2, has confirmed that operations have restarted on Train 1.
This follows a major maintenance shutdown period.
The LNGC ‘Amur River’ has sailed from Prigorodnoye, the main port for Sakhalin-2 LNG, with the first cargo loaded after the integrated gas system major maintenance project.
LNG train 1 was restarted, while post-shutdown commissioning continued at Train 2, the company said.
Major maintenance took place at several sites, including the Lunskoye-A offshore gas production platform, the onshore processing facility, OPF compression construction site, booster station No 2, and the Prigorodnoye production complex.
“Some activities were completed for the first time, not only in Sakhalin-2 project’s history, but also in Russia. Once of the unique technical challenges was the replacement of two out of the four LNG loading arms at the LNG jetty.
“This complex operation was carried out using ‘Pijlgracht’, a specialised vessel equipped with two main cranes with a lifting capacity up to 700 tonnes each,” explained Alexander Singurov, Deputy Production Director and Prigorodnoye Asset Manager.
“At the production complex, we also modified the mixed refrigerant compressor and the emergency shutdown system,” he added.
According to Evgeny Udovenko, Sakhalin’s Head of Engineering and Maintenance, this project meant a lot of preparation and case reviews that took into account COVID-19-related risks and international suppliers’ personnel travel restrictions.
Overall, 3,000 company and contractor team members completed around 1,600 work orders and accumulated over 1.2 mill man hours without a single lost time incident.
“Moreover, in view of the scale and duration of our summer turnaround campaign, the company decided to complete some of the scope originally scheduled for autumn and winter 2021 and for 2022, during this TA,” Udovenko said.
He also mentioned that, thanks to the scheduled and extra maintenance performed this year, based on equipment inspections and diagnostics, the company intends to postpone a major shutdown next year.
This will allow Sakhalin Energy to reduce OPEX, undertake activity planning more efficiently and effectively, and transition the entire integrated gas chain to a four-year maintenance cycle going forward.
By adopting this approach, each train will be shut down once every two years, the company further explained.
