Offshore Gas Wells News

Once considered the future of gas production, floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) projects have been firmly relegated to the backburner as global gas producers seek cheaper ways to compete with a surge in U.S. shale supplies and slumping prices. FLNG projects - mega tankers fitted with gas extraction and liquefaction facilities - allow producers to tap offshore gas wells and ship LNG without having to build costly pipelines to onshore plants. Owners can move the vessels to new fields when production at an old one ends, slashing asset end-of-life costs.

Sakhalin Energy said it had started drilling the first offshore gas wells from the Lunskoye-A platform. The platform is Russia's first gas-producing offshore platform located at the Lunskoye gas and condensate field, 9.3 miles off northeastern Sakhalin. The platform is designed for year-round operation in harsh weather conditions, and is able to withstand high seismic activity, the company said. The $20b Sakhalin II project is developing the Piltun-Astokhskoye and Lunskoye oil and gas fields on the island's northeastern shelf, with recoverable reserves of 150 million metric tons (1.1 billion barrels) of oil and 500 billion cubic meters of gas. The project's shareholders are Russian energy giant Gazprom (50%), Royal Dutch Shell (27.5%) and Japan's Mitsui (12.5%) and Mitsubishi (10%).