The turnaround activities took about a month and caused periodical flaring and smoke emissions, which are indispensable in this process. During this time the company and contractors performed a number of complex technical operations, with some of them done for the first time ever not only in Sakhalin-2 but in Russia in general.
LNG plant performed a modification of train 2 axial compressor, replaced the charcoal mercury adsorbentused for natural gas purification, and performed maintenance on the gas turbines. Besides, the company was among the first in Russia to roll out the digital shadowing technology, which is a system to provide remote assistance in real time. Engineers and technical advisers from around the globe connected to the work area by means of video conferencing and provided online support for the turnaround activities.
For the first time ever, air coolers inspection was performed at booster station 2. This provided an invaluable experience in terms of maintenance, integrity and safety of the process equipment. Onshore processing facility (OPF) and LUN-A platform performed planned maintenance activities with a focus on electrical, control and instrumentation and process systems used for gas export from LUN-A to OPF.
About 95,000 man-hours was worked on production and safety critical equipment during the turnaround with over 1,500 technical staff engaged from 19 contractors working in two shifts. During this period the company partially continued to produce and offload LNG and oil to its Asia Pacific buyers.
The Production Director Ole Myklestad said that Sakhalin Energy completed the technical activities successfully, and, more importantly, safely despite the COVID-19 challenges. “It is symbolic that we consider the production resumed as soon as we produce the first drop of liquefied natural gas after the restart of equipment. We got this first drop about 5 am today and we’re continuing to ramp up production, which confirms the successful 2020 integrated gas turnaround completion,” commented Ole Myklestad.