Gazprom to Ship Carbon-Neutral LNG to Europe

Russia's Gazprom plans to deliver carbon-neutral LNG to Europe, the head of LNG at Gazprom Export, Pavel Sedov, said on March 2 during a presentation of a Shell LNG outlook report.

"There are not many carbon-neutral LNG cargoes shipped around the world yet, and we are taking our first steps here, too," Sedov said. "And I would like to thank Shell for their constructive partnership approach which helps us find ourselves in this segment."

The first delivery of carbon-neutral LNG to Europe will take place "in the near future," he said. "This will be a definitive achievement and the first step to a more environmentally-oriented portfolio of gas products."

Gazprom operates a 11mn metric ton/year LNG plant on Sakhalin Island, with Shell and Japan's Mitsui and Mitsubishi serving as partners. The company is developing a second 13mn mt/yr facility in Ust-Luga on the Baltic Sea, due online in 2024-2025. 

"We are also considering participation in a number of smaller LNG projects which will play a role in filling regional demand," Sedov continued. "However, many such projects were unfortunately delayed in 2020 due to force majeure circumstances."

Gazprom is constructing the 1.5mn mt/yr Portovaya LNG plant on the Baltic Sea, but the project has fallen behind schedule. The company initially said the plant would start operating in 2019, but then delayed the start-up until 2020 and then to 2021. It had plans for two more bunkering sites on the Black Sea and in the Far East, but neither project has left the drawing board.