Russia's Sakhalin-2 liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant has started maintenance work set to last for just over a month at one of the plant's two lines, the company said on Monday.
Sakhalin Energy had originally planned for work to be done on both lines at the same time, but logistical difficulties caused by the coronavirus outbreak forced it to postpone some of the maintenance to 2021.
Works at the Lunskoye-A offshore platform, the Onshore Processing Facility (OPF), Booster Station No.2 and the LNG plant would involve around 1,500 people, all of whom have undergone a 14-day period of self-isolation to guard against the spread of the novel coronavirus, the company said.
"Due to current economic downturn and the pandemic challenge, we had to modify the initial turnaround scope," Ole Myklestad, Sakhalin Energy’s production director, said in a statement.
"To ensure the safety of our people and reliable production, the company has decided to follow the original timeline, but shut down only one train at the LNG plant. At Lun-A and the OPF, we will be shutting down one train at a time."
The plant is located on the Pacific island of Sakhalin, which has had a relatively low number of coronavirus cases - 330 in total - as of June 14.
LNG production at the Sakhalin-2 plant last year fell to around 11.15 million tonnes from 11.41 million tonnes in 2018.
Equity holders in Sakhalin Energy include Gazprom, Royal Dutch Shell, and Japan's Mitsui and Mitsubishi Corp.
(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; writing by Alexander Marrow; editing by Jason Neely)