Sakhalin Energy has announced that the first scheduled Russian liquefied natural gas cargo has been loaded from the Sakhalin II LNG plant onto the Energy Frontier carrier. The vessel departed Prigorodnoye port bound for Sodegaura terminal in the Tokyo Bay of Japan, with a cargo of around 145,000 cubic meters of LNG.
According to the company, this liquefied natural gas (LNG) consignment will be used by two of the company’s foundation customers, Tokyo Gas and Tokyo Electric.
Sakhalin LNG is currently being produced by the first of two trains, the second of which is due to come on stream in the middle of 2009; and by early 2010 there will be a gradual ramp-up to full production capacity of both trains.
The company said that the project infrastructure includes three offshore platforms, an onshore processing facility, 300km of offshore pipelines and 1,600km of onshore pipelines, an oil export facility and the LNG plant.
Practically all the 9.6 million tonnes of annual production capacity of the two LNG trains has already been committed in long-term sales contracts to supply customers in Japan, Korea and other markets. Sakhalin LNG is the first Russian gas to be supplied to these regions.
Ian Craig, Sakhalin Energy’s CEO, said: Russia has marked its entry into the Asia Pacific LNG market, and Japan and Korea have a new long term energy partner.
