Russia’s Sakhalin-2 LNG export terminal, operated by Gazprom, will soon replace two out of four loading arms at its offloading jetty.
Sakhalin Energy, the operator of the Prigorodnoye facility, said in a statement on Monday that the Pijlgracht cargo vessel would deliver the arms to Sakhalin from Japan.
The vessel was located near Prigorodnoye on Wednesday, its AIS data shows.
Japanese company TB Global Technologies built the equipment for the LNG terminal operator. Each of the arms weighs 77 tonnes.
Sakhalin Energy plans to install them in July−August this year as part of the largest planned shutdown of the Sakhalin-2 gas infrastructure.
In addition, a team of around 50 experts would work on replacing the loading arms, the firm said.
“We have a total of four loading arms at the export terminal. Plans are to replace the busiest, the first and the fourth, which are primarily used in LNG offloading,” said Alexander Singurov, Sakhalin Energy’s deputy production director and Prigorodnoye asset manager.
Russia has not yet had any LNG loading arm replacement and this marks a “unique experience” for the country’s oil and gas industry, Singurov said.
The Sakhalin-2 LNG facility produced and shipped record 11.6 million tonnes of LNG last year. This is equivalent to 178.6 standard cargoes.
It started producing LNG back in 2009 with a design capacity of 9.6 mtpa, but due to technical improvements and upgrades, together with weather and temperature conditions, production rose by 20 percent.
Moreover, most of these volumes land in Japan, followed by South Korea, Taiwan, and China.
Sakhalin Energy’s shareholders include operator Gazprom, major partner Shell, and Japan’s Mitsui and Co., and Mitsubishi Corporation.