Marine Loading Arm Replacement at Sakhalin
Sakhalin Energy is developing the Piltun-Astokhskoye oil field and the Lunskoye gas field off the north-eastern coast of Sakhalin. Its activities include production, transportation, processing, and marketing of oil and natural gas.
One of the company’s major assets include the Prigorodnoye Production Complex comprising Sakhalin II LNG plant and an oil export terminal (OET). This complex is located on the southern shore of Sakhalin island, alongside Aniva Bay, 15 km to the east of Korsakov.
In June 2021 m.v. Pijlgracht loaded two new LNG loading arms, manufactured by the Japanese company TB Global Technologies, in Niigata, Japan and delivered them to the Sakhalin II LNG plant on Sakhalin island in Russia. The two new loading arms each weigh about 80 mt and replace the existing ones at the Sakhalin II LNG plant. M.v. Pijlgracht is fitted with two heavy-lift cranes, which each can lift up to 700 tonnes and she unloaded and installed the loading arms with her own cranes. The technical work was scheduled for July and August 2021 as part of the largest planned shutdown of the Sakhalin II infrastructure. When the equipment arrived at Prigorodnoye port, replacement and installation works were carried out from the jetty and some works offshore directly from m.v. Pijlgracht. As per information received by Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd, this was Russia’s first LNG loading arm replacement.