LNG support is liquefying – Newspaper Kommersant No. 154 (7355) of 08/24/2022

The government refused to allocate budget funding for the program of localization of equipment for LNG projects. The Ministry of Industry and Trade asked for 35 billion rubles to support the industry. until 2030, but will receive only 300 million rubles. The main amount of funds in 89 billion rubles. it is proposed to attract from extrabudgetary sources. At the same time, the goals remain ambitious: the share of Russian equipment in LNG projects is proposed to be increased to 80% by 2030. The Ministry of Industry and Trade promises to “continue to seek funds” for “such an important area.”

The federal project for the localization of equipment for LNG projects, developed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, has lost the lion’s share of state funding.

A total of only 300 million rubles will be allocated from the federal budget. for 2022 and 2023.

The total cost of the program until 2030 is 89.32 billion rubles. An updated version of the passport of the project “Breakthrough to LNG Markets” was published by the Maysky Ukaz Telegram channel.

The project of the Ministry of Industry and Trade is a plan for conducting research and development, creating prototypes and launching serial production of equipment. In the summer of 2021, as Kommersant wrote, the total cost of the program was estimated at 127 billion rubles. The Ministry of Industry and Trade wanted to receive 35 billion rubles from the budget. in 2022-2030, and attract the rest through investments from equipment manufacturers.

The latest document says that as early as 2022, the share of Russian LNG equipment of plants “based on Russian LNG technology” is 40%. Although in the previous version, the Ministry of Industry and Trade wanted to achieve this goal only by 2024.

In 2028, the figure should grow to 60%, and by 2030 – up to 80%.

The Ministry expects that Russian enterprises will master the production of 18 types of equipment for medium and large-scale LNG production by 2030. The volume of additionally attracted private investment in the industry by the end of this year will amount to 6.16 billion rubles, the document says. We are talking, in particular, about discharge pumps, cryogenic valves, membrane elements of the primary barrier for LNG storage systems, liquid expanders, electric-driven booster compressors with a capacity of more than 35 MW, spiral-wound cryogenic heat exchangers, etc. Among the manufacturers are JSC Afrikantov OKBM (part of the Rosatom), Konar JSC, Logicroof Plant LLC, Kazankompressormash JSC.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade assured Kommersant that the Breakthrough to LNG Markets project is being implemented in accordance with the plan.

With the support of the ministry, 7 out of 18 projects are being implemented, the list of which was compiled by NOVATEK and Gazprom, they specified. The remaining 11 are planned to be supported by the end of the year. In a number of areas, prototypes have already been created. For example, JSC Afrikantov OKBM (part of Rosatom) successfully tested an LNG unloading pump for NOVATEK’s Arctic LNG-2 project.

“Under the current conditions, it is really very important to ensure financing for the implementation of such projects in full,” the Ministry of Industry and Trade emphasizes. They recalled that in 2022 the government plans to allocate more than 3 billion rubles for these purposes, of which 1 billion rubles. allocated from the government’s reserve fund. “In the future, we will continue to seek funds to support such an important area of ​​industry,” the ministry assured.

“In order to ensure a real breakthrough in the LNG market, it is necessary to solve the problems of developing and manufacturing equipment – both investments are needed there and there,” Andrey Nikipelov, general director of Atomenergomash (part of Rosatom), told Kommersant. R&D government decree (No. 1649.— “b”) is primarily aimed at generating revenue, and the current situation requires efforts primarily to create new technologies and products. In addition, if we talk about the creation of the production of equipment for LNG projects, then we need mechanisms that provide long-term and cheap money. Abroad, as a rule, we are talking about investments for a period of more than ten years with a rate of 2-3% per annum. Therefore, with our current rates, it is much more difficult to develop production.”

It is necessary to clearly separate R&D and commercialization of developments, says Sergey Kolobanov, Deputy Head of the Economics of Fuel and Energy Complex department at the Center for Strategic Research.

The federal project assumes only the first – research and development (development), the creation of prototypes, as well as the organization of future mass production. For these tasks, funds are quite enough, and Russia has a scientific backlog in this area, the analyst notes.

However, the target indicators for the share of Russian equipment in the implementation of LNG projects can only be achieved in the case of commercially successful developments, that is, if prototypes are recognized as competitive, Sergei Kolobanov notes. “And here it is just important that projects are ordered and accepted by potential interested parties from business, and not by the state. Therefore, extrabudgetary funding is quite justified. As for state support, the government, in addition to direct budget support (subsidies and government purchases), has many other tools as part of the investment and innovation policy of gas companies ordering such developments,” the expert believes.

Polina Smertina