By Vladimir Soldatkin
SAKHALIN, Russia, July 20 (Reuters) - Sakhalin Energy
expects to cut exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to 166
cargoes this year from a record-high 178 in 2020 after recently
launching its largest overhaul since opening in 2009, the
Russian firm's CEO said.
Controlled by gas giant Gazprom, Sakhalin Energy
supplies LNG to the Asia-Pacific and has major customers in
China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
CEO Roman Dashkov said the overhaul includes maintenance and
upgrades and is being carried out despite challenges posed by
the pandemic.
"Those are technological facilities and IT systems. In the
first place, this is related to the possibility of our
production capacity expansion," he said, adding the work, which
began on July 9, is due to last around 37 days.
The company said it had notified its major customers about
the maintenance.
Located on the southern tip of the Russian Pacific island of
Sakhalin, the company produced and shipped record volumes of LNG
in 2020, topping 11.6 million tonnes and accounting for 3.2% of
the global LNG demand. One LNG cargo is around 65,000 tonnes.
RESOURCE BASE
Sakhalin Energy has long planned to build a third production
line, but the plans have been hampered by lack of necessary gas
resources under the company's ownership in the region.
It had been in talks with another Production Sharing
Agreement project in Russia, the Rosneft-led Sakhalin
1, on possibility of using its gas.
"We are ready to take part in the talks if any such
opportunity arises," Dashkov said.
He added that the company is still considering building a
third line, or train. The plant would be able to process 24
billion cubic metres of gas per year to produce up to 16 million
tonnes of LNG.
By around 2030 the project will see production start to
decline due to "natural depletion of our fields", Dashkov said.
Sakhalin Energy stakeholders include Gazprom with a 50%
stake plus one share, Royal Dutch Shell with 27.5%
minus one share, and Japanese firms Mitsui and
Mitsubishi Corp with 12.5% and 10%, respectively.
(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Jason Neely)
