Russia has opened a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in the country’s northern region of Yamal. The first tanker with LNG was launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The ice-breaking tanker is named after the former CEO of Total Christophe de Margerie who died in a plane crash in Russia. The tanker can carry up to 173,000 cubic meters of LNG. Russia plans to build 15 of these tankers as big as the ‘Christophe de Margerie‘.
The controlling stake (50.1%) in the enterprise belongs to Russian energy major Novatek, while 20% each is owned by French Total, and China’s CNPC, and the remaining 9.9% belongs to the China-based Silk Road Fund.
At the cost of $27 billion, the plant will have three production lines and a total capacity of 16.5 million tons of LNG per year.
Almost 96% of the Yamal LNG plant’s production has already been contracted. The main customers will be the countries of the Asia-Pacific region, Novatek reported.
Poland and Lithuania are now buying more expensive US (liquefied natural gas) LNG in an effort to shake off Russian dominance.
RT.com / ABC Flash Point Energy News 2018.
