Sakhalin Energy commences maintenance of LNG and gas assets
Published by Will Owen,
Editor
LNG Industry,
Sakhalin Energy has announced that it will be carrying out annual maintenance activities at its Lunskoye-A offshore platform, its onshore processing facility (OPF), its booster station No. 2, and its LNG plant. The exact diagnostic and maintenance scopes will vary across different assets.
“Due to current economic downturn and the pandemic challenge, we had to modify the initial turnaround scope. 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”, said Ole Myklestad, Sakhalin Energy’s Production Director.
The company’s decision was driven by a number of factors, such as epidemic prevention measures rolled out at its assets and maintaining their virus-free status, self-isolation requirements for its personnel, and limited ability to mobilise expatriates, as well as challenges associated with delivering materials and equipment from outside Russia.
About 1500 people, including 700 external technical specialists, will take part in the shutdown activities. In order to keep the company’s assets virus-free, all of them, as well as Sakhalin residents, have undergone 14-day self-isolation in specially equipped corporate temporary accommodation facilities (TAFs) and been tested for coronavirus twice. Establishing such TAFs is one of the steps the company has taken to protect the health of its own staff and contractor personnel while facing the pandemic threat. In addition, Sakhalin Energy plans to apply state-of-the-art technology, using remote access and video links to enable OEMs and office-based engineers in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk to provide high-quality support to our assets.
During the turnaround, Sakhalin Energy will continue delivering crude oil and LNG cargoes to its customers. A total of about 600 000 t of LNG and about 382 000 t of crude oil is expected to be offloaded over this period, with 13 oil tankers and LNG carriers calling at the port of Prigorodnoye.
“Not only will this campaign be a challenging and critically important period for us, it will also present us with new developmental opportunities in this new reality. Our key objective is to complete the scope safely, with good quality and on time to ensure reliable production and shipment of oil and LNG”, added Ole Myklestad.
The Sakhalin-2 gas production assets maintenance works will take just over a month to execute. Once the planned scope is completed, the company will fully resume its production activities.
Read the article online at: https://www.lngindustry.com/liquid-natural-gas/15062020/sakhalin-energy-commences-maintenance-of-lng-and-gas-assets/
You might also like
EIA: US natural gas trade will continue to grow with the start-up of new LNG export projects
The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s recently released Short-Term Energy Outlook forecasts that US LNG exports will continue to lead growth in US natural gas trade as three LNG export projects currently under construction start operations and ramp up to full production by the end of 2025.