LNG

Gazprom said it had begun building a small-scale liquefied natural gas facility using coal-seam gas in the Kuznetsk Coal Basin in the country’s Kemerovo region of southwest Siberia, known as the Kuzbass, and a coal-mining area where in the time of Stalin and even later mine workers could become heroes of the Soviet Union.

Russia’s natural gas giant Gazprom has given a board update on liquefied natural gas projects for maritime and road transport as well as gas grid expansion to 67 areas in the Russian Federation through 2025.

Mitsui OSK Lines, the Japanese shipping company, said it signed charter agreements for three ice-breaking liquefied natural gas carrier for the Arctic II LNG project in the Gydan Peninsula of northern Siberia being developed by Russian natural gas company Novatek.

The three vessels are being built by the South Korean shipbuilders, Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering, and are scheduled for delivery in 2023.

“The vessels will mainly transport LNG from a loading terminal on the Gydan Peninsula in the Russian Arctic to the floating LNG storage units (FSU) to be installed at the trans-shipment terminal in Kamchatka (eastbound) and Murmansk (westbound) via the Northern Sea route,” explained MOL.

The Arctic LNG II project being developed by Novatek with three gravity-based platforms and the estimated capital expenditure for the joint venture is now put at the equivalent of US$21.3 billion.

Arctic LNG will produce 19.8 MTPA of LNG as well as gas concentrate from the principal feed-gas resources, the Utrenneye gas field.

Novatek holds 60 percent of the Arctic LNG project and four other 10 percent stakes are shared between various shareholders.

The 10 percent holdings belong to French major Total, which is also a shareholder in the Novatek company, China National Petroleum Corp., China National Offshore Corp. and a Japanese investor group comprising Mitsui & Co. and the government institution, the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp. (Jogmec).

“Compared with MOL's previous icebreaking LNG carriers, which can only sail eastbound in the Northern Sea Route during mostly summer and autumn period of time when the ice is thin, the new vessels will have a narrower width, hull form optimized for ice breaking, and an increased propulsion engine output which will enable the vessels to sail east via the Northern Sea Route all year round,” stated MOL.

MOL added that combination of these three ice-breaking LNG vessels, which can transport LNG to the FSUs in the east and west throughout the year, and conventional LNG carriers that will transport LNG from the FSUs to their final destinations, will enable efficient year-round transportation.

“The eastbound transportation route will reduce the distance of the voyage by approximately 65 percent compared to the westbound route via the Suez Canal for Asian destinations, thereby making a significant contribution to a reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions by vessels,” said the Japanese company.

MOL noted that it had already been engaged in transporting LNG using three icebreaking LNG carriers on the Northern Sea Route since March 2018 for the Yamal LNG Project in Russia.

“These new contracts were concluded in recognition of MOL's proven track record and technical expertise in the Northern trade, and the experience and resources which the company has built over many years of LNG transportation,” said the company.

Gazprom, the Russian natural gas company, said it made a yet another new gas discovery on the Yamal Peninsula in northern Siberia, close to the largest Russian LNG export plant run by rival operator Novatek.

Gazprom explained that the discovery was made as a result of drilling and testing of an exploratory well on Yamal and a commercial gas inflow was obtained with a flow rate of about 600,000 cubic metres per day.

“This proves that the new deposit contains substantial amounts of gas. Therefore, the field's commercial value is now much higher than before,” said the Russian company.

Novatek’s Yamal plant has three liquefaction Trains on stream, each with nameplate capacity of 5.5 million tonnes per annum.

A smaller fourth Train at Yamal is currently being completed and will produce 900,000 tonnes per annum, taking overall production to 17.4 MTPA.

Gazprom said that its latest discovery for future pipeline gas sales marked the fourth major discovery it had made on the shelf of the Yamal Peninsula in the Kara Sea over the last two years.

The company will calculate the newly-discovered reserves of the Leningradskoye field and present the findings to the State Reserves Commission in order to record them in the state register.

The Leningradskoye gas and condensate field is located in the Kara Sea within the Leningradsky licensed block .

The field's current recoverable gas reserves are estimated to total 1.9 trillion cubic metres and are classified as unique in size.

In 2019, Gazprom discovered the Dinkov and Nyarmeyskoye fields, also on the shelf of the Yamal Peninsula.

Then in 2020, the company discovered the “75 Years of Victory” field on the Yamal shelf.

The Dinkov field is situated within the Rusanovsky licensed block.

The field is unique in terms of gas reserves. Its recoverable reserves in the С1+С2 categories amount to 390.7 billion cubic metres.

The Nyarmeyskoye field is located within the Nyarmeysky licensed block.

In terms of gas reserves, it is a large field with the recoverable amount of 120.8 billion cubic metres in the С1+С2 categories.

The “75 Years of Victory” field is situated within the Skuratovskaya prospect.

From the point of view of gas reserves, the field is classified as large: its recoverable gas reserves in the С1+С2 categories total 202.4 billion cubic metres.

Gazprom also has a subsurface use license for the Rusanovskoye field on the Yamal shelf.

The number of gas field in the area amount to 32 discoveries.

Total reserves and resources of all fields in the Yamal Peninsula amount to over 26.5 trillion cubic metres of gas, 1.6 billion tons of gas condensate and 300 million tons of oil.

Gazprom’s pipeline natural gas production in Yamal in 2019 came to 96.3 billion cubic metres. The future prospects for Yamal pipeline gas output is up to 360 billion cubic metres of gas per year.

Gazprom said that overcoming Yamal’s harsh climate and environment, has made the shelf the launch pad for efficient, safe and innovative technologies and technical solutions.

“The Yamal mega-project is unparalleled in terms of complexity, as its hydrocarbon reserves are concentrated in a hard-to-reach area with exceedingly difficult climatic conditions,” explained Gazprom.

The region is characterized by permafrost, long winters, and low mean temperatures of minus 50 degrees Celsius.

In summer, 80 percent of Yamal’s territory is covered by lakes, swamps and rivers, which considerably limits the possibilities for industrial construction.

Gazprom has been employing efficient, safe and innovative technologies and technical solutions in Yamal.

Many of those innovations were developed at the company’s request by leading Russian research institutions and companies.

Novatek, operator of the Yamal LNG plant and lead developer of the Arctic II LNG project, has signed an agreement with Japanese shipping company Mitsui OSK Lines to cooperate on the construction of LNG trans-shipment stations on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East and near the Barents Sea port of Murmansk.