OREANDA-NEWS. June 24, 2008. Dewa Maru, a Japanese LNG carrier, is the first foreign vessel to moor at Prigorodnoye seaport after the port was opened to foreign vessels by a Governmental Decree dated 6th May 2008.

Dewa Maru is delivering a third shipment of liquefied natural gas, which will help to continue LNG start-up preparations.

Using imported LNG is a cutting edge technical facility that enables Sakhalin Energy to accelerate the start-up preparations for Russia’s first LNG plant. Prigorodnoye Asset Manager Bert Christoffels says that using this new technology once again shows how innovative the Sakhalin II Project is. Two LNG shipments delivered last year enabled Sakhalin Energy to start commissioning and testing at the LNG plant without having to wait for other Sakhalin II facilities to be completed.

Over the past ten months the tuning of LNG/vapour gas storage and offloading systems have been fully completed. Drying of pipelines on Train 1, which were completed in May 2008, is now finished. The third LNG shipment brought to Sakhalin by the Dewa Maru will enable Sakhalin Energy to continue commissioning and start-up preparations for Train 1. Additionally, the imported gas will be used to complete commissioning and start-up of gas turbine generators, flaring and fuel gas systems, as well as commissioning and potentially start up activities on Train 2.

The LNG plant is scheduled to be in full operation before the end of the year.