LNG

Novatek, the Russian natural gas company and operator of the Yamal LNG export plant in northern Siberia, reported that its own share of cargo sales on international markets had dropped my more than 25 percent in 2020.

The company said third-quarter natural gas sales volumes, including volumes of LNG sold, amounted to an aggregated 16.56 billion cubic metres, representing a decrease of 0.8 percent compared with the prior year.

Novatek’s quarterly LNG volumes sold on international markets dropped 27.6 percent and amounted to the equivalent of 2.20 Bcm (1.63 million tonnes) versus 3.04 Bcm in the 2019 quarter.

Novatek is the largest independent natural gas producer in Russia and in December 2017 entered the global LNG market by starting up the Yamal LNG project.

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.

French energy company Total and China National Petroleum Corp. are the other main shareholders in the Yamal plant. Total additionally owns a 19.4 percent stake in the Novatek company.

Novatek’s upstream activities are concentrated mainly in the prolific Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Region, which is the world’s largest natural gas producing area and accounts for about 80 percent of Russian natural gas output.

The company added that nine-month LNG sales dropped 29.6 percent to 7.12 Bcm compared with 10.11 Bcm in the same 2019 period.

Natural gas volumes sold in the Russian Federation in the third quarter rose 5.1 percent and totaled 14.36 Bcm versus 13.66 Bcm in the same three months of 2019.

Russian Federation pipelines sales in the first nine months of the year were down 1.1 percent to 47.03 Bcm.

“As of the end of September, Novatek had 1.5 Bcm of natural gas, including LNG, and 743,000 tons of stable gas condensate and petroleum products in storage or transit and recognized as inventory,” said the company.

“The decrease attributable to volumes sold on international markets was mainly due to the decrease of Yamal LNG shareholders’ share, including Novatek’s share, of LNG volumes sold on the spot market, and a corresponding increase in Yamal LNG direct sales under long-term contracts,” explained Novatek.

Tellurian Inc. has delayed as expected its scheduled start of construction of the proposed Driftwood LNG export plant on the west bank of the Calcasieu River, south of Lake Charles in Louisiana, until 2021 and will study the economics of its Permian Basin feed-gas pipeline.

Tellurian Inc., the developer of the US Driftwood LNG export plant planning to supply nations such as India and with Indian company Petronet investing in the venture, said it was still in talks with Saudi Arabian energy company Saudi Aramco about taking an equity stake.

Inpex Corp., the Japanese company with a majority stake in the Ichthys LNG plant and a minority share in the Prelude FLNG venture in Australia, has agreed to a framework deal with Indonesia for the US$20 billion Abadi onshore LNG production facility.

Novatek, the Russian developer of the Arctic II LNG project on the Gydan Pensinsula, said it signed a deal with Franco-US energy contractor TechnipFMC for the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning of the liquefaction plant to produce 19.8 million tonnes per annum.

French energy major Total said fourth-quarter net income rose by 10 percent to $3.16 billion and jumped by 28 percent for the full year to $13.55Bln as its liquefied natural gas activities increased with fresh volumes coming from Ichthys LNG in Australia and the Yamal plant in Russia.