Russia’s Sakhalin LNG terminal wraps up maintenance

The operator of the Sakhalin-2 project said in a statement on Monday it has fully resumed LNG production after completing maintenance and overhaul of process equipment as part of the planned shutdown of the integrated gas system (IGS) facilities.

According to Sakhalin Energy, a special feature of this year’s summer campaign was the first simultaneous shutdown of the entire integrated gas and oil system in the history of the Sakhalin-2 project.

The possibility of implementing such a large-scale scope of work required lengthy preparations, which had been underway since the beginning of 2023, it said.

For the third year, Sakhalin Energy has been working with exclusively Russian contractors.

Sakhalin Energy said more than 4,000 specialists took part in the project.

Key technical activities included internal inspection of the flare separator at the LUN-A offshore gas production platform, internal inspection of the monoethylene glycol storage tank at the OPF, and overhaul of the auxiliary electric motor and refrigerant cooling compressor turbines at the Prigorodnoye production complex.

Sakhalin LNG stake sale

In March this year, Russia has approved the sale of a 27.5 percent stake, previously owned by LNG giant Shell, in the new operator of the Sakhalin LNG plant to a unit of state-owned Gazprom.

Under a government order, Gazprom’s unit Sakhalin Project will buy the stake in Sakhalin Energy for 94.8 billion roubles ($1.11 billion).

Gazprom already has a 50 percent operating stake in the LNG terminal operator.

The government also declared null and void the order from April last year to approve Novatek’s purchase of Shell’s 27.5 percent stake in Sakhalin Energy LLC, but it did not provide further information on the reasons behind this decision.

A Shell spokesperson said at the time that the company “reserves all its legal rights relating to its 27.5 percent (minus one share) interest in Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd (SEIC).”

Back in 2022, Shell said it will not take equity in the new Sakhalin LNG terminal operator.

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree in June 2022 allowing Russia to take charge of the Sakhalin-2 project due to Western sanctions imposed on Russia.

Sakhalin Energy LLC launched its operations on August 19, 2022 and the Sakhalin-2 LNG export terminal produced about 11.5 million tonnes of LNG in 2022.

Previous reports suggest the LNG terminal produced more than 10 million tonnes of LNG in 2023.

Besides Shell’s 27.5 percent interest and Gazprom’s 50 percent operating stake in the original entity, Japan’s Mitsui owned 12.5 percent stake and compatriot Mitsubishi had 10 percent in the plant.

Mitsui and Mitsubishi won approvals in 2022 from the Russian government to take stakes in the new operator.