December 8 set for Novatek’s Yamal LNG launch?

Russia’s largest independent gas producer, Novatek, has set December 8 as a provisional date for the start-up of its Yamal LNG project in the Russian Arctic.

A source told Reuters they have received an invitation to the December 8 launch of the project’s first phase, however, the date could change.

Sovcomflot’s LNG tanker Christophe de Margerie, the world’s first ice-breaking LNG vessel, arrived at the Yamal berth on November 7 and is waiting to load the first cargo, LNG World News reported earlier.

The 172,600-cbm LNG carrier is the first of 15 ice-class tankers built to ship cargoes from the Yamal LNG project.

The three-train Yamal LNG plant, designed to produce about 16.5 million tonnes per year, will liquefy natural gas from the South Tambey field on the Yamal Peninsula.

The $27 billion project is a joint venture between Novatek, the operator with a 50.1 percent stake, China’s CNPC and Total of France with a 20 percent stake, each and China’s Silk Road Fund with a 9.9 percent stake.

LNG World News Staff