Mikhelson announced Novatek’s interest in the Sakhalin-2 project

The largest producer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) “Novatek» interested in participating in the LNG project «Sakhalin-2”, said Leonid Mikhelson, co-owner and representative of the board of Novatek, on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum (WEF), transmits RBC.

“We are interested in seeing. We will ask the government to be able to thoroughly conduct our own audit, starting with geological, operational and so on,” he said. After the audit, the company will make a final decision on the need to purchase a stake in this project.

The Sakhalin-2 LNG project is being implemented on the shelf of the Sakhalin Peninsula under a Production Sharing Agreement (PSA). It provides for the development of the predominantly oil Piltun-Astokhskoye and the predominant gas Lunskoye fields. The plant produces about 11.5 million tons of LNG per year.

Until recently, the operatorSakhalin-2”was Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd., registered in Bermuda, but at the end of June, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree “On the application of special economic measures in the fuel and energy complex in connection with the unfriendly actions of certain foreign states and international organizations.” In accordance with it, all rights and obligations of the former operator of the Sakhalin-2 project were transferred to a specially created Sakhalin Energy LLC. The new operator announced the start of work on August 19. The owner of the controlling stake in the Russian company remained “Gazprom“.

Prior to this, Gazprom owns 50% plus one share in the PSA project, Anglo-British Shell – 27.5% of shares minus one share, Japanese Mitsui and Mitsubishi – 12.5% ​​and 10%, respectively. Mitsui and Mitsubishi decided to keep a stake in the project, but Shell notified the Russian government that it was withdrawing from the project.

The day before, the government approved the criteria that a legal entity wishing to buy Shell’s share in the project must have. In particular, a potential buyer must have experience in operating a plant in the large-tonnage LNG industry (over 4 million tons per year), as well as be part of a group of legal entities with experience in international LNG trading with a total accumulated sales of at least 40 million tons and having contracts for the supply of liquefied natural gas with a validity period of more than 5 years.

Novatek owns the Yamal LNG plant, which has a capacity of 16.5 million tons per year, now the company is building a second plant in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug “Arctic LNG-2” (19.8 million tons per year, three stages along 6.6 million tons each). It is planned that the first stage of this plant will start operating in December 2023, the second – in 2024, and the third – in 2026.

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