Date
Author
Анна ГОРШКОВА; Алексей ГРИВАЧ
Source
Preserved copy
Translated material
Pipe on a fault
Rostechnadzor accidentally suspended work on Sakhalin-2
Construction work on the mainland part of the oil and gas pipeline of the Sakhalin-2 project was suspended again yesterday. True, this time not for long and without any special consequences for its shareholders. The initiator was the regional branch of the Federal Service for Environmental, Technological and Nuclear Supervision (Rostekhnadzor). The department, as stated in its message, considered that there were violations during the construction of the facility on one of the seismic faults in the central part of Sakhalin. According to the documents, work has been suspended until August 10, but Rostekhnadzor does not exclude the possibility that it will resume in the coming days.The Sakhalin-2 project is being implemented by Sakhalin Energy, 50% plus one share of which is owned by Gazprom, 27.5% minus one by Shell, 12.5% by Mitsui and 10% by Mitsubishi. By the middle of next year, the project should launch a liquefied natural gas plant with a capacity of 9.6 million tons per year, as well as two pipelines (gas and oil) 800 km long across the island.
As is known, Gazprom received a share in the project after a massive attack by Rosprirodnadzor and multi-billion dollar (in words) claims due to non-compliance with environmental standards against the project operator, which was entirely owned by foreign companies. After the change in the composition of shareholders, the claims quietly faded away.
And yesterday’s incident happened, essentially, by accident. According to Vremya Novostey, an inspector assigned to the project on a permanent basis saw that a pipe was laid in one of the sections that was not provided for by the project. In addition, it turned out that there is no drainage system on seismic faults.
According to Sakhalin Energy press secretary Ivan Chernyakhovsky, we are talking about an 800-meter section of oil pipeline construction, passing through one of nineteen seismic faults. When designing this site, some technical improvements were made to the plan, which required the expert assessment of independent specialists. This expert assessment has already been ordered and contractors expect to receive it shortly.
“The identified violation is minor, and the contractor company is already working to eliminate it. And it is possible that construction of the pipeline will be resumed in the coming days,” the press service of Rostechnadzor explained to Vremya Novostei. According to a representative of the department, cases of suspension of work due to comments from inspectors are quite common during the implementation of any pipeline projects. True, Rostekhnadzor is now preparing a more thorough inspection of Sakhalin-1 and Sakhalin-2. “This is a desk (i.e., not allowed to travel - Ed. ) inspection, included in the ministry’s plans back in December last year. The order to carry it out has already been signed by the head of the department, Konstantin Pulikovsky. It will begin on August 1 and will last a month,” Rostekhnadzor said.
Mr. Chernyakhovsky is confident that the suspension of construction will not have an impact on the implementation of the project as a whole: “The project is close to completion, the first commissioning work has already been completed at the gas liquefaction plant. As expected, LNG supplies will begin in the second half of 2008.” According to Mr. Chernyakhovsky, 1.5 million tons of LNG will be sent to South Korea, another 1.6 million tons to North America (Mexico and the USA), and the remaining 6.5 million tons of LNG are contracted by various Japanese companies.