MOSCOW, June 15 (Reuters) - Russia's Sakhalin-2 liquefied
natural gas (LNG) plant has started maintenance work set to last
for just over a month at one of the plant's two lines, the
company said on Monday.
Sakhalin Energy had originally planned for work to be done
on both lines at the same time, but logistical difficulties
caused by the coronavirus outbreak forced it to postpone some of
the maintenance to 2021.
Works at the Lunskoye-A offshore platform, the Onshore
Processing Facility (OPF), Booster Station No.2 and the LNG
plant would involve around 1,500 people, all of whom have
undergone a 14-day period of self-isolation to guard against the
spread of the novel coronavirus, the company said.
"Due to current economic downturn and the pandemic
challenge, we had to modify the initial turnaround scope," Ole
Myklestad, Sakhalin Energy’s production director, said in a
statement.
"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."
The plant is located on the Pacific island of Sakhalin,
which has had a relatively low number of coronavirus cases - 330
in total - as of June 14.
LNG production at the Sakhalin-2 plant last year fell to
around 11.15 million tonnes from 11.41 million tonnes in 2018.
Equity holders in Sakhalin Energy include Gazprom,
Royal Dutch Shell, and Japan's Mitsui and
Mitsubishi Corp.
(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; writing by Alexander Marrow;
editing by Jason Neely)
