OREANDA-NEWS. On March 29, 2009 The first scheduled Russian LNG cargo has been successfully loaded from the Sakhalin II LNG plant onto the LNG carrier Energy Frontier, reported the press-centre of Sakhalin Energy.

The vessel departed Prigorodnoye port on 29 March bound for Sodegaura terminal, Tokyo Bay, with a cargo of some 145 thousand cubic metres of LNG. This consignment, the first ever Russian gas to be delivered to Japan, will be taken by two of the Company’s foundation customers - Tokyo Gas and Tokyo Electric.

“This is a key milestone, the culmination of many years of effort by the Russian Federation, the Sakhalin Oblast, our shareholders and the thousands of Company and contractor staff who made it all possible, - said Sakhalin Energy’s CEO Ian Craig. – Russia has marked its entry into the Asia Pacific LNG market and Japan and Korea have a new long term energy partner”.

Sakhalin LNG is currently being produced by the first of two trains, the second of which is due to come on stream in the middle of this year. 2009 and early 2010 will see a gradual ramp-up to full production capacity of both trains. The project infrastructure includes three offshore platforms, an onshore processing facility, 300 kilometres of offshore pipelines and 1,600 kilometres of onshore pipelines, an oil export facility and the LNG plant.

Practically all the 9.6 million tonnes of annual production capacity of the two LNG trains has already been committed in long-term sales contracts to supply customers in Japan, Korea and other markets. Sakhalin LNG is the first Russian gas to be supplied to these regions.

Year round export of oil from Prigorodnoye commenced in December 2008 and will also reach peak production in 2010.