Novatek Cracks LNG Spot Market with First Shipment

Russia’s natural gas producer OAO Novatek has, through its wholly owned trading subsidiary Novatek Gas & Power, entered the global liquefied natural gas (LNG) market as it shipped its first LNG cargo.

Namely, the company sent the cargo sourced from Shell’s Trinidad & Tobago LNG plant to the Chilean port of Quintero.

“This first LNG cargo is an important milestone for Novatek to enter the global LNG market,” Deputy Chairman of Management Board – Commercial Director of NOVATEK, Lev Feodosyev, said.

“After the launch of the first train of the Yamal LNG project we will enter the LNG market with our own volumes, and gaining spot trading experience is important for us,” Feodosyev added.

The first train of the company’s liquefied natural gas project Yamal LNG, located in northern Russia, is scheduled to be launched in 2017, the company earlier said.

In April, the Russian firm entered signed a contract with the country’s banks Sberbank and Gazprombank for a loan which is part of the financing package for Yamal LNG.

Novatek plans to transport the cargo from Yamal via ARC7 (Russian arctic classification standards) 170,000 cbm ice class LNG carriers, which are currently under construction.

OAO Novatek’s upstream activities are concentrated in the prolific Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Region.

During the first half of 2016, the company’s marketable production totaled 33.76 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas and 6,327 thousand tons of liquids (gas condensate and crude oil), resulting in an increase in natural gas production by 2.2%, and an increase in combined liquids production by 51% as compared with the first half 2015.