Arctic LNG II project developer Novatek hosted a forum for contractors and suppliers, attended by more than 160 companies, to keep the venture on track for a 2024 start-up and to expand cooperation at the Novatek LNG Construction Centre at Belokamenk in the Murmansk region of northern Russia.
The forum aimed to foster experience-sharing and broader opportunities for Russian equipment manufacturers to ensure the successful implementation of Novatek’s second large-scale LNG project in the Arctic after the existing Yamal plant.
All three liquefaction Trains at the Arctic LNG II plant were scheduled to come on stream in a two-year time span from 2023.
The start of the first Train is planned for 2023, the second for 2024 and the third Train for 2025.
Representatives of 153 suppliers and contractors, nine Novatek subsidiaries and joint ventures as well as members of local and national government attended the forum.
Speakers included senior executives of Novatek and many other companies as well as the Russian Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Mikhail Ivanov and Murmansk Region Governor Andrey Chibis.
The modules constructed in China for the first liquefaction Train for the project arrived in September 2021 at the Novatek-Murmansk assembly site from the Wison shipyard at Zhoushan in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang.
These modules were then handed over to the Arctic LNG project engineering, procurement and construction contractors comprising Technip Energies, Italy’s Saipem and Russian company NIPIGAS.
“This is the forum's third edition and it is the first time that we have hosted it at the LNG Construction Centre in Belokamenka,” noted Leonid Mikhelson, Novatek’s Chief Executive.
“In these meetings, we discuss in detail the execution of our LNG project with Russian equipment manufacturers, engineering companies and contractors,” explained Mikhelson.
“One of our paramount tasks is to gain a significant share of the global LNG market. This can be achieved by maximizing import substitution and local content in equipment manufacturing for large-scale LNG projects, which reduces capital expenditures and makes Russian LNG more competitive,” stated the CEO.
“Our joint efforts with the support by the Government will allow building up a new LNG sector of Russia's industry,” he declared, hinting that other projects could be developed.
