Russia’s big Arctic LNG project comes with a cost to the environment

By Atle Staalesen, The Independent Barents Observer January 9, 2018
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Dredging, such as that seen on the Dvina River in this file photo, has been one of the larger environmental impacts of the Yamal LNG project (Atle Staalesen / The Independent Barents Observer file photo)
Dredging, such as that seen on the Dvina River in this file photo, has been one of the larger environmental impacts of the Yamal LNG project (Atle Staalesen / The Independent Barents Observer file photo)

The developers of the Yamal LNG project in Russia’s Arctic are seeking to overcome damage caused by the removal of 70 million tons of seabed from the Gulf of Ob.

The project is one of the biggest industrial projects ever undertaken in the Arctic. And it has not come without a price for the environment. Not only does the LNG plant and adjacent infrastructure cover large swaths of vulnerable Yamal tundra lands, effects are significant also in the Gulf of Ob, the great and shallow waters between the Kara Sea and the Ob River.

An unprecedented 70 million tons of ground has been removed in the period 2014-2017, the Russian Federal Agency for Maritime and River Transport confirms. A key part of it has been taken from the waters surrounding the new great port of Sabetta.

In 2016 alone, a total of 23 dredger vessels were involved in the area. As a result, a 205-meter-wide and 15.1-meter-deep channel has been made open for shipping through the shallow gulf. In the waters adjacent to the Sabetta terminal, the channel has also been widened  to 315 meters.

The LNG project requires easy access to Sabetta for carriers with a draft of up to 12 meters.

The project participants will now have to take great effort to compensate for the damage inflicted by the project, the government agency underlines.

Of special importance is the local fish stocks, officials argue. In 2017, they released about 215 million pieces of baby peled, a northern whitefish, and 2.6 million baby sturgeon. The artificially farmed fish have a value of more than 600 million rubles (€8.7 million), a press release informs.

It is not an easy task. In previous years, only 16 of every 1,000 released fish survived. Now, the size of the baby fish has been increased from 1.3 grams to 10-12 grams in a bid to enhance survival rates.

Novatek and its partners have spent about $27 billion on their development of the Yamal LNG project. A key part of infrastructure developments, including the dredging, has been covered by the Russian federal government.

In December, the production was officially started and the first carriers shipped out liquified gas from the terminal facilities in Sabetta, the new major sea port on Yamal coast. A fleet of 15 tankers will ultimately serve the project and ship out an annual 16,5 million tons of LNG through the Arctic waters.

In addition to Sabetta and the Yamal LNG, effects on the local environment are significant also from the Novy Port project further south in the Ob Gulf. The Novy Port is operated by Gazprom Neft and includes the annual out-shipment of several million tons of oil from a new terminal off the coast of Cape Kamenny, a site on the southeastern shore of Yamal.