Russian LNG exporter Novatek has completed the installation of the first gravity-based structure platform which will serve its Arctic LNG 2 project located on the Gydan peninsula.
Novatek announced on Wednesday that the first GBS, or LNG train, was installed on the underbase foundation on the seabed at the Utrenniy terminal on Gydan.
According to the firm, the LNG train will now be hooked up to onshore upstream facilities to complete the commissioning activities and start liquefaction operations.
The 6.6 mtpa process train recently arrived at the Arctic LNG 2 site under tow from Novatek’s yard near Murmansk.
Moreover, the 330 meters long, 152 meters wide, and 90 meters high platform weighs 640,000 tonnes and is the heaviest object ever moved in the history of the global LNG industry, Novatek claims.
The train consists of topside modules with the equipment to produce and offload LNG and stable gas condensate, installed on a concrete gravity-based structure, which accommodates LNG and condensate storage tanks, it said.
Second train at “advanced stage”
“We passed an important milestone in the Arctic LNG 2 project having completed the marine towing of the LNG train, fully assembled at the LNG construction center, and its installation at the Utrenniy terminal”, Novatek’s chief Leonid Mikhelson said in the statement.
Mikhelson also said the innovative GBS-based construction concept allows the firm to put new LNG facilities into operation faster and with lower capital expenditures.
“Our LNG construction center in the Murmansk region offers a unique advantage of serial LNG trains fabrication: we are now at an advanced stage of building the Arctic LNG 2 project’s second train, and we are also starting the work on the third train’s GBS,” he said.
Novatek expects to launch production from the first unit by the end of this year and to reach its full capacity of 6.6 mtpa during the first quarter in 2024.
The resource base of the Arctic LNG 2 project is the Utrenneye field located on the Gydan Peninsula in the YaNAO, about 70 km from the Yamal LNG project across the Gulf of Ob.
Novatek is the LNG project’s operator with a 60 percent stake, France’s TotalEnergies owns 10 percent, while CNPC and CNOOC of China have 10 percent, each.
Japan Arctic LNG, a consortium of Mitsui & Co and Jogmec, owns a 10 percent stake in the project as well.