Sakhalin island

To enhance productivity, a group of several dozens of main and additional wells are normally drilled. Advances in directional drilling techniques allow drilling horizontal wells to penetrate targets up to 12 kilometres away from the drilling point.

Productivity of each well in the Lunskoye field is 9 to 10 million m³ of gas per day.

Onshore Processing Facility

Sakhalin Energy is committed to the preservation of the local environment and has programmes in place for the monitoring and protection of Steller’s sea eagle, Sakhalin taimen, western gray whales and salmon. Specially designed river crossings are built along the pipeline route to protect spawning grounds and land remediation activities are under way.

Gas compressor station No.2

Oil pumping station No.2

LNG plant

Loading
berths

At the LNG plant, gas is liquefied by cooling which reduces its volume by a factor of 600 times.

Sakhalin Energy controls a fleet of 5 LNG ships and 3 Aframax oil tankers which deliver LNG and oil to the Asia Pacific region and America.

10× Revenue of the Sakhalin Oblast has increased 10-fold over the last 10 years.

The project is a major source of contributions to the regional and federal budgets. The government receives hundreds of millions of roubles in royalties and taxes.

1,600 km of onshore pipelines

225 vessel entries per year

The Technology

With cooling to −162°C at normal atmospheric pressure, natural gas becomes a liquid and its volume is reduced by a factor of around 600 times. LNG is a clean, colourless and odourless liquid, the density of which is about half that of water.

The Sakhalin II Project

The implementation of Phase 1 of the project began in 1996. The PA-A (Molikpaq) platform, which began producing oil in July 1999, was installed in the Sakhalin shelf in 1998.

The first Russian natural gas liquefaction plant was put into service in February 2009. The plant’s output is contracted for the next 20 years to customers from Japan, South Korea and North America.

      Offshore Drilling

      Offshore wells, including development wells, water injection wells, drill cuttings re-injection wells, are drilled by rigs placed on offshore platforms.

      Production and Separation

      Oil and gas straight out of the well contain impurities like water and sand which need to be removed at the platform prior to sending the oil and gas via the offshore pipeline to the OPF which further processes the pre-treated feedstock, compresses it and sends it to the south.

      Transportation to the LNG Plant

      The north of the island where oil and gas are produced has severe climatic conditions preventing access by conventional means of transport. To support operations throughout the year, crude oil and natural gas need to be taken to the south of the island. This required the construction of the TransSakhalin pipeline system to carry oil and gas across the island to Aniva Bay in the south end which remains practically ice-free in winter allowing for the year round navigation.

      Liquefaction and Storage

      Production facilities at Prigorodnoye near Korsakov include an LNG plant and an oil export terminal (OET). At the LNG plant, gas received via pipelines from the north is liquefied and then stored in two high-capacity storage tanks. Oil is stored in two other specially designed storage tanks at the oil export terminal.

      Shipping

      Gas and oil tankers are loaded at the Prigorodnoye port to carry the cargo to customers. Now the terminal handles around 160 gas and 65 oil tankers per year.