Sakhalin Energy begins one-month maintenance on LNG plant

Russia’s Sakhalin Energy, the operator of the Sakhalin-2 liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, has commenced a one-month maintenance project at the plant, Kallanish Energy reports.

The maintenance activities will be carried out at the Lunskoye-A offshore platform, the onshore processing facility (OPF), booster station No. 2 and the LNG plant. In a statement the company confirmed it will be shutting down one train at a time in accordance with safety measure related to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Works will involve 1,500 workers, including 700 external technicians, all of whom have undergone a 14-day isolation period at specially-constructed facilities and testing to comply with necessary Covid-19 prevention requirements.

The company confirmed that during this period of maintenance it will continue to supply LNG and crude oil to its customer base, forecasting 600,000 tonnes of LNG and 382,000 tonnes of crude oil to be offloaded over this period.

“Due to current economic downturn and the pandemic challenge, we had to modify the initial turnaround scope,” said Ole Myklestad, Sakhalin Energy’s production director. “To ensure the safety of our people and reliable production, the company has decided to follow the original timeline, but shut down only one train at the LNG plant. At LUN-A and the OPF, we will be shutting down one train at a time.”

The Sakhalin-2 LNG plant was established as the first of its kind in Russia, developing the Piltun-Astokhskoye and Lunskoye oil and gas fields in the Sea of Okhotsk. The onshore facility is operated by Sakhalin Energy – a consortium between Gazprom, Shell, Mitsui and Diamond Gas. The plant has a capacity of 9.6 million tonnes per annum.

This post appeared first on Kallanish Energy News.