Ceremony of loading of the first LNG tanker within the project of Yamal LNG, 8 December 2017
Yamal LNG project was proposed when the company with the same name and controlled byGennady Timchenko and Pyotr Kolbin got a license for the Yuzhno-Tambeyskoye gas field in 2005.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]Novatek took control of Yamal LNG in 2009.[9] Another project named Yamal LNG was proposed byGazprom. In November 2008, Gazprom announced that it prepared a list of potential partners for the LNG plant of theYamal project. Although the list was not disclosed, Gazprom indicated thatExxonMobil andConocoPhillips were included on the list.[10] AlsoRoyal Dutch Shell,Repsol YPF andPetro-Canada were mentioned as potential partners.[10] In October 2010, the Novatek's project was chosen by the Russian government as a pilot project. The groundbreaking ceremony for the port construction was held in July 2012;[11] however, construction of the port itself began in 2013.[12]
As of 7 April 2014, the Yamal LNG OJSC is Novatek (60% stake), China's CNPC (20% stake) and France's Total (20% stake).[13]
The commercial operation of the port and firstLNG train (LNG purification facility) were launched on 8 December 2017 by starting loading the firstLNG carrier named after the late CEO of TotalChristophe de Margerie. The loading was ceremonially launched by presidentVladimir Putin in the presence of Saudi Arabia's energy ministerKhalid al-Falih.[15]
According to Novatek on 22 October 2019, the natural gas reserves in theYamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug represent 80% of Russia's natural gas and 15% of the world's natural gas supply.[16]
In 2021, Yamal LNG was ranked no. 30 among 120 oil, gas, and mining companies involved in resource extraction north of the Arctic Circle in theArctic Environmental Responsibility Index (AERI).[17] The plant is expected to produce a total of 926 billion cubic metres of liquefied natural gas from the South Tambey field and is considered by some to be the 'crown jewel' of the Northern Sea Route.[18]
The Yamal LNG plant will have three trains with total capacity of 16.5 million tonnes ofliquefied natural gas per year when fully operational.[20][21] The first train is operational at the end of 2017 and the full 3 train capacity is to be achieved by 2021.[22] A second LNG Plant, named Artic LNG 2,[23] is also proposed at a site to east near theGyda Peninsula, across the riverOb estuary fromSabetta
The plant was designed and commissioned by consortium ofTechnip andJGC Corporation, and Chiyoda.[20] In addition to the LNG plant, the project includes the construction of a seaport, airport and power plant.[24] The power plant will be built byTechnopromexport and its turbines will be supplied bySiemens. The power plant will have capacity of 380 MW(during ISO conditions) across its 8 turbines and it is to be operational by 2018.[25] Construction of the port facilities started in September 2013.[26]
The project is developed by JSC Yamal LNG.Novatek owns 50.1% stake in the company whileTotal S.A. andCNPC own 20% each with China'sSilk Road Fund has signed agreement to purchase 9.9% stake.[31] General director of the company was Gleb Luxemburg[21]and from September 2014 Evgeny Kot has been appointed the CEO of Yamal LNG.[32]
Shareholders provided $10.5 billion the remaining coming as debt, with theRussian National Wealth Fund providing $2.6 billion, Russian banks $4 billion and Chinese banks $12 billion.[33]
Yamal LNG leases 15Yamalmax class LNG tanker ships to export its gas. Each tanker is designed to operate year-round from the Yamal peninsula and to break ice up to 2.1 meters thick.[34][35] The ships are leased by Yamal LNG from four companies:Sovcomflot, one ship;MOL, three ships;Dynagas, five ships; andTeekay, six ships.[36] The tankers were designed in Finland byAker Arctic Technology Inc.[37] and built at theDaewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) shipyard in South Korea.[38]
The first icebreaker,Christophe de Margerie,[39] traversed from Norway to South Korea across the Northern Sea Route in 19 days in August 2017.[40]
Following the14 September 2019 attack byIran onSaudi Arabian oil fields atKhurais andAbqaiq (Biqayq in Arabic) during the 2019–2021 Persian Gulf crisis, the United States imposed sanctions under executive order 13846 against several companies including Cosco Shipping Tanker (Dalian) Seaman and Ship Management Company Ltd and the Cosco Shipping Tanker Dalian (大連中遠海運油品運輸有限公司) which are twoCosco Shipping Company subsidiaries that are supporting LNG shipments fromSabetta.[42][43] As of late September 2019, the Joint VentureTC LNG between the Cosco Shipping Tanker Dalian company (50% stake) and the Canadian firmTeekay is the China LNG Shipping Ltd (CLNG) which has more than one third of Sabetta's LNG ice fleet, six ARC7 LNG tankers:Eduard Toll (Russian:«Эдуард Толль»),Rudolf Samoilovich (Russian:«Рудольф Самойлович»),Nikolay Evgenov (Russian:«Николай Евгенов»),Vladimir Voronin (Russian:«Владимир Воронин») all of which are operating,Georgy Ushakov (Russian:«Георгий Ушаков») which is going to Sabetta after sea trials, andYakov Gakkel (Russian:«Яков Гаккель») which is under sea trials at a South Korean shipyard. Also affected are five ARC7 tankers which Dynagas will supply in a partnership betweenSinotrans&CSC and CLNG (25.5% stake), as well as three ARC7 tankers from a joint venture between the Cosco subsidiary Shanghai LNG and Japan'sMOL (株式会社商船三井). However, these former five and later three ARC7 tankers are not directly sanctioned but USOffice of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) rules require caution to be exercised in the former. Of the fifteen ARC7 tankers operating out of Sabetta, only Sovcomflot'sChristophe de Margerie is not affected by the sanctions. Although these ships have been serviced atHonningsvåg, Norway, this will be phased out and future LNG tanker shipments along theNorthern Sea Route may occur betweenMurmansk andKamchatka in Russia coastal waters.[44][45][46] On 30 January 2020, the United States lifted sanctions on Cosco Shipping Tanker (Dalian) and its TC LNG.[16][47][48]
^Overland, I., Bourmistrov, A., Dale, B., Irlbacher‐Fox, S., Juraev, J., Podgaiskii, E., Stammler, F., Tsani, S., Vakulchuk, R. and Wilson, E.C. 2021. The Arctic Environmental Responsibility Index: A method to rank heterogenousextractive industry companies for governance purposes.Business Strategy and the Environment. 30, 1623–1643.https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bse.2698
^Conley, Heather A., et al. “Russia's Northern Sea Route Ambitions.” Maritime Futures: The Arctic and the Bering Strait Region, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), 2017, p. 7,JSTOR website Retrieved 11 January 2022.
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