Russian LNG exporter Novatek reported a 2.6 percent decrease in its natural gas sales, including LNG, in the second quarter of this year.
Novatek said in its preliminary report issued on Monday that the company’s natural gas sales reached 17.83 bcm during the April-June period.
During the first half, Novatek’s gas sales dropped 3.3 percent year-on-year to 39.30 bcm.
The company did not break down the gas sales just to LNG. This was the case in the previous three quarterly reports.
Novatel reported a 47.3 percent rise in its LNG sales for the second quarter of the last year to 3.24 bcm, while in the first quarter Novatek’s LNG volumes rose 60 percent to 2.97 bcm.
During 2023, Novatek’s gas sales rose 2.7 percent to 78.63 bcm.
Gas production climbs
As per Novatek’s gas production, it reached 20.60 bcm in the second quarter this year, a rise of 1.2 percent compared to 20.35 bcm in the year before, the company said.
Gas production rose 1.2 percent to 41.73 bcm in the first half of this year.
Moreover, the company’s total hydrocarbon production rose 2.8 percent to 163.3 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) in the second quarter, while it rose 2.7 percent to 330.7 mmboe in the first half of this year.
LNG projects
Novatek currently exports LNG via its 17.4 mtpa Yamal LNG plant and the mid-scale facility in Vysotsk with a nameplate capacity of 660,000 tons.
The firm is also building the 19.8 mtpa Arctic LNG 2 plant and in August last year completed the installation of the first of three trains which will serve the project.
According to reports in Russia, Novatek started production of LNG from this unit in December but it is not shipping LNG from the project due to US and EU sanctions and lack of vessels.
The first GBS, or train, has a capacity of about 6.6 mtpa, such as the the two other units which are under construction.
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 Novatek’s Yamal LNG project across the Gulf of Ob.
Novatek is the LNG project’s operator with a 60 percent stake, 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.
In January, TotalEnergies initiated a force majeure process on the Novatek-operated Arctic LNG 2 project in Russia due to sanctions.
In March 2022, TotalEnergies said it would no longer provide capital and book proven reserves for the Arctic LNG 2 project due to the uncertainty created by the technological and financial sanctions on the ability to carry out the development.
After that, TotalEnergies wrote down its 19.4 percent stake in Novatek and withdrew the representatives of the company from the board of Novatek.