Yamal LNG Terminal

This article is part of the Global Fossil Infrastructure Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor.

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Yamal LNG Terminal is an operating LNG terminal in Sabetta, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Russia.

Location

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Project Details

Project Details, Train 1

• Operator: Yamal LNG
• Parent: Novatek (50.1%), Total (20%), CNPC (20%), China's Silk Road Fund (9.9%)
• Location: Sabetta, Yamai Peninsula, Russia
• Coordinates: 71.2656586,72.0446648 (exact)
• Capacity: 5.5 mtpa
• Status: Operating
• Type: Export
• Start Year: 2017

Project Details, Train 2

• Operator: Yamal LNG
• Parent: Novatek (50.1%), Total (20%), CNPC (20%), China's Silk Road Fund (9.9%)
• Location: Sabetta, Yamai Peninsula, Russia
• Coordinates: 71.2656586,72.0446648 (exact)
• Capacity: 5.5 mtpa
• Status: Operating
• Type: Export
• Start Year: 2018

Project Details, Train 3

• Operator: Yamal LNG
• Parent: Novatek (50.1%), Total (20%), CNPC (20%), China's Silk Road Fund (9.9%)
• Location: Sabetta, Yamai Peninsula, Russia
• Coordinates: 71.2656586,72.0446648 (exact)
• Capacity: 5.5 mtpa
• Status: Operating
• Type: Export
• Start Year: 2018

Project Details, Train 4

• Operator: Yamal LNG
• Parent: Novatek (50.1%), Total (20%), CNPC (20%), China's Silk Road Fund (9.9%)
• Location: Sabetta, Yamai Peninsula, Russia
• Coordinates: 71.2656586,72.0446648 (exact)
• Capacity: 0.9 mtpa
• Status: Operating
• Type: Export
• Start Year: 2021

Note: mtpa = million tonnes per year; bcfd = billion cubic feet per day

Background

Yamal LNG terminal is one of several gas project under development in the Yamal Peninsula, Russia, which collectively make up one of the world largest Fossil Extraction Megaprojects. Construction at the facility began in 2013.

The first processing unit is planned to come online in 2017. By 2019 all processing units are scheduled to be operational. Yamal LNG will use icebreaker shipping vessels to transport the gas.

Once operational, Yamal will have an export capacity of 16.5 mtpa, giving Russia total liquefaction capacity of 27.3 mtpa, and making Russia the third largest exporter of gas after Qatar and Australia.

The project's first LNG train was brought online in December 2017, its second LNG train in July 2018, and its third LNG train in November 2018, each with a capacity of 5.5 mtpa. A fourth train was a capacity of 1 mtpa is due to come online in 2019. In April 2019 the Chairman of Novatek stated that the terminal's fourth train would be commissioned by the end of 2019. In January 2020 it was reported that construction of Train 4 was delayed and that it would not be commissioned until March 2020 at the earliest, costing the project's sponsors an estimated 900 million rubles in lost revenue monthly. Train 4 began operating in May 2021 and, in June, was reported to have reached its full production capacity of 950,000 tonnes per annum of LNG.

In September 2021, Leonid Mikhelson, a major shareholder of Novatek, said that equipment at train four was not working properly due to technological failures.

The project utilizes resources from the Yuzhno-Tambeyskoye Oil and Gas Field (Russia).

In June 2023, Russia's government granted the project authorization to continue exporting to Germany. Upstream reports, "The Kremlin banned all Russian companies from dealing with Sefe after it was created in mid-2022, but issued a temporary exemption for the Novatek-led Yamal LNG operator, which has a long-term contract with the German company to supply 2.9 million tonnes per annum of LNG." The current exemption will run through 2024.

Financing

The overall cost of the project is US$27 billion. Because of US and EU sanctions on Russia, the facility faced financing challenges. The project completed financing in 2016, with a US$3 billion loan from Russian development bank VEB and loan agreements with Chinese banks worth over US$12 billion.

Additional lending US$4 billion was provided by Gazprombank and Sberbank. The Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) provided €200 million, and Italian commercial bank Intesa Sanpaolo provided €750 million under coverage from the Italian and French export credit agencies, Sace and Coface, amounting to €350 million. In addition, Yamal LNG received the equivalent of US$2.4 billion from Russia's National Welfare Fund.

Banking on climate change

A January 2019 article in Bellona noted that the Yamal LNG Terminal is one of "the first major energy projects in the world that seems to be banking its chips – cynically or otherwise – on the thawing of the Arctic caused by global warming. The hotter things get, the logic suggests, the better business will be."