Russian gas producer Novatek and its partners plan to export an LNG cargo to Asia through the Northern Sea Route (NSR) this month.
Novatek chief financial officer and deputy chairman of the management board Mark Gvetvay said that, with the commissioning of Russia's new nuclear-powered, 28,500-gt ice breaker Arktika, the company is scheduling its latest cargo for the year to ship in December
“We are pretty excited about the opportunity to continue using this facility to move our hydrocarbons to market,” he said during told dmg events' World LNG & Gas Virtual Summit on Thursday.
Gyetvay said taking the Northern Sea Route reduces Novatek’s distance to its markets in Asia by over 50%.
Shipping cargoes via the Suez Canal would take between 36-38 days but taking NSR cuts this to 18 days, he detailed.
The CFO highlighted the company’s first LNG ship-to-ship transfer to the north of Murmansk, after Novatek shifted these operations from Norway to Russia.
He said the company plans to bring its first large floating storage unit (FSU) transshipment hub at Murmansk online in 2022.
The second at Kamchatka at the eastern end of the Northern Sea Route would be brought onstream in 2023 to dovetail with the launch of Novatek’s second large liquefaction project Arctic LNG 2.
He said there would be a free-on-board new price development in these markets with the FSUs designed to facilitate trading operations.
Gyetvay revealed that Novatek’s Yamal LNG has started commissioning its 900,000 tonnes per annum train 4 with a first cargo likely be produced in early 2021.
The volumes from this liquefaction unit, which is an add on to Yamal’s existing three 5.5 million tonnes per annum units, will be sold on the spot market.
Length: 173 metres
Breadth: 34 metres
Height: 15.2 metres
Power capacity: 60MW
Cruising speed: 22 knots
Maximum ice penetration: 2.9 metres
Crew: 53
Service life: 40 years
Gyetvay said Novatek plans to launch the first train of its 19.8 mtpa Arctic LNG project in 2023.
The second and third trains of the gravity-based structure project are scheduled to come online in 2024 and 2026, he said.
Gyetvay noted that Novatek’s strategy is to increase its LNG production to 70 million tonnes per annum by 2030.
He said that on the Yamal and Gydan peninsulas Novatek has some 4trn cubic metres of natural gas.
The executive said the Russian government recently unveiled its strategy that the country should be able to produce 140 mtpa of LNG.
“I think Novatek will take the lead in this particular area and I think if we look post 2030 we can easily be up into the 100 million tonnes [per annum] of LNG,” he said.