Patrick Pouyanné, Chief Executive Officer of Total, and a team of company representatives recently visited the Yamal LNG project in Russia.
Total, together with the project operator, Novatek and CNPC of China, expects to start production from the 16.5 million tons per annum facility in late 2017.
As Total informed in its report of the visit, the Arktika drilling rig, specially built to operate in harsh conditions has drilled 27 out of the planned 208 wells.
As per the facilities, they are being built on permafrost, soil that is permanently frozen over a depth of several meters. To ensure stability, the structures will be supported by piles 60 centimeters in diameter, driven into the ground to a depth of around 20 meters. Yamal LNG’s storage tanks are supported by around 950 piles each.
The project’s port has been put into operation and is ready to receive heavy and complex equipment modules being built outside Russia. A specially-built airport has also been built on site to enable transportation of people and equipment.
To transport liquefied natural gas from the facility, the project will use the ice-class LNG carriers featuring main propulsion propellers with a rating of 16 MW.
In winter, the ice-class LNG carriers will take the Northwest Passage to European markets. Some of the gas will then be shipped on conventional LNG carriers to other markets. In summer, the gas can be shipped west or directly to Asia via the Northern Sea Route, a new shipping lane that runs north of Russia.
[mappress mapid=”16578″]
LNG World News Staff; Images: Total