Russia's Yamal LNG export project will have a 4th train, bringing its capacity from 16.5mn mt/yr up to 17.5mn mt/yr, but despite the small size, it will lower the overall capital cost of the project by between 4% and 5%, CEO Leonid Mikhelson said October 17, 2017.
Leonid Mikhelson said that Novatek intends to expand its groundbreaking Yamal LNG project with one more liquefaction train, adding an additional million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of capacity.
The 1st 3 trains will all be online by the 1st half of 2019, and the 4th train would be in operation before 2020, he said.
With all trains running, the total capacity of the plant would be about 18 mtpa – about one third less than the output of Cheniere's Sabine Pass facility.
Novatek has also announced that it intends to build a comparable plant on the Gydan Peninsula, across the Gulf of Ob from Yamal LNG.
The 2nd facility – called Arctic LNG-2 – would be completed by 2023, and would export gas from Novatek's Salmanovskoye and Geofizicheskoye fields, along with production from new license areas as the firm continues exploration.
Mikhelson has claimed that the combined plants could produce 70 MTPA, enough to rival world leader Qatar.
To build Arctic LNG-2, Novatek proposes to build plant modules near the site at a new $400 million construction yard.
Yamal LNG's giant modules were built overseas and carried thousands of miles to the newly built port of Sabetta, where they were brought ashore and integrated into the rest of the facility.
Yamal is above the Arctic Circle, and ice poses a logistical challenge in the wintertime.
Sovcomflot is already building a fleet of icebreaking LNG carriers – the 1st of their kind – in order to carry Yamal LNG's exports, and the series could be expanded to handle additional plant capacity.