Sakhalin II gears up for full production
Posted: 27 May 2009
The last major offshore gas well is being completed at the Lunskoye platform in Russia’s sub-Arctic Sea of Okhotsk preparing the way for full production capacity of liquefied natural gas (LNG) at Sakhalin II, one of the world’s largest integrated oil and gas projects.
Production at Sakhalin II’s first LNG unit got under way in March 2009 with a flawless start-up programme. Completion of the final gas well - Russia’s largest - is a vital step towards starting operations at its second LNG unit. Full capacity of 9.6 million tonnes a year is expected to be reached in 2010.
Sakhalin II is one of the most challenging engineering feats ever achieved. It operates amid some of the world’s harshest conditions in Russia’s far east, an area prone to earthquakes.
The project on Sakhalin Island exports LNG and oil to the fast-growing energy markets in the Asia-Pacific region and the west coast of North America.
It will meet nearly 8 per cent of Japan’s gas needs and 5 per cent of South Korea’s. The first Sakhalin II LNG cargo delivered arrived in Japan’s Tokyo Bay in April 2009, the first time Russia has exported gas from its eastern borders and the first time it has supplied gas to Japan.
Shell is a partner and lead technical adviser to the project’s operator, Sakhalin Energy.
Sakhalin II has total resources of some four billion barrels of oil equivalent. At full capacity, the LNG plant would add up to 5 per cent to the world’s current LNG capacity.
Posted by Richard Price, Editor, EnergyME.com
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