Floating LNG-terminal could start operating in Ukraine by late 2014, says official
A floating liquefied natural gas terminal (LNG terminal) could arrive in Ukraine in the middle of next year and start operating by the end of 2014 according to an optimistic, but realistic scenario, Head of the State Agency for Investment and National Projects Management Vladyslav Kaskiv has told Interfax-Ukraine.
"Under the technical conditions, the platform could arrive to Ukraine in the middle of 2014, if nothing hinders this. The start of physical supplies of gas depends on partners, including on the connection of the terminal by Ukrtransgaz. According to the optimistic, but realistic scenario, this could happen by the end of 2014," he said.
Kaskiv added that a state-run company empowered by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine would lease the platform. He said that talks with potential investors on the construction of an onshore LNG terminal are being held.
"We're working on the draft agreements with an investor company or a consortium that will include the world's leading players. The biggest prospects are in the Asian direction… The agreements will be approved by the government, and they could be financed in June," he said.
As reported, earlier Energy and Coal Industry Minister Eduard Stavytsky said that talks on the construction of an LNG terminal are underway with Kogas and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).
The building of the LNG terminal in Ukraine is split into two phases. In the first (to be launched in 2016), there will be a floating terminal with handling capacity of five billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas per year. In the second (2018), there will be built an onshore terminal with capacity of 10 bcm per year.
The first phase will see dredging (with funding of EUR 121 million raised by state-run enterprise LNG-Terminal), the building of a connection with a high-pressure gas pipeline (with less than EUR 113 million of Ukrtransgaz's funds), and the installation of a leased floating terminal.
The second phase will involve the building of an onshore terminal costing EUR 735 million.
The terminal is to be set up near the town of Yuzhny in Odesa region, alongside PAO Ukrtransnafta oil terminal and the Yuzhny seaport.
