PAO Novatek is preparing to hook up Train 1 of its 19.8 million tonne/year (tpy) Arctic LNG 2 liquefaction plant on Russia’s Gydan Peninsula to complete commissioning activities and begin liquefaction operations, the operator said in a late August release.
The 6.6-million tpy liquefaction train was towed by sea atop its gravity-based structure (GBS) from the LNG construction center in the Murmansk region to the Gydan Peninsula and was installed on the underbase foundation built on the seabed at the Utrenniy terminal near shore. The marine towing operation took 22 days to complete.
The train consists of topside modules with equipment to produce and offload LNG and stable gas condensate and was installed on a GBS, which accommodates LNG and condensate storage tanks. The 330-m long, 152-m wide and 90-m high platform weighs 640,000 tonnes, Novatek said.
“The innovative GBS-based construction concept allows us to put new LNG facilities into operation faster and with lower capital expenditures,” said Leonid Mikhelson, Novatek’s chairman of the management board.
The operator is 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.