LNG Trains
Activity appears to have slumped at Russia’s only construction yard for liquefied natural gas modules, another sign of how Western sanctions are thwarting the country’s ambition to become a top player in this key energy market.1)
Novatek PJSC’s Belokamenka facility on the Barents Sea, dubbed “the plant to make LNG plants,” looks to have been largely mothballed. In late October and the first days of November, night-time light intensity at the plant was the lowest since 2019, according to satellite observations compiled and analyzed by the Earth Observation Group at the Payne Institute for Public Policy in Colorado.2)
The site was intended to become a unique hub for domestic assembly of so-called LNG trains – modular processing plants capable of super-chilling natural gas into its liquid form. But after building two trains for Arctic LNG 2, Russia’s newest export facility, there’s no sign of activity that would be needed to further expand capacity in the near future.3)
Rather than building LNG production facilities from scratch in the challenging Arctic climate, Novatek came up with an idea of assembling them in milder conditions near the port of Murmansk. The yard at Belokamenka built the first two trains for Arctic LNG 2 each consisting of 14 modules mounted on a giant floating gravity-based platform.4)