This Cost $27 Billion Dollars to Build

this is gtt mark iii membrane tank used to store liquefied natural gas or lng during transportation and this is one of the biggest and most complicated natural resources projects in the world the yamal lng with a whopping cost of 27 billion dollars to build located in northwest siberia in yamalu-ninets region which stores 80 percent of russia's gas reserves the yamal lng is a true engineering marvel but the real game changer that allowed this hefty price tag to be economically viable is not what you think oh and you know how projects of this scale usually tend to go over budget and deadline i guess this one is a double not what you think as the world transitions away from oil and the office commute natural gas is increasingly viewed as a transitory step while it's still a fossil fuel and burning it produces greenhouse gases it is a cleaner alternative because when burnt natural gas produces 45 percent less carbon dioxide than coal and 30 percent less than oil natural gas currently accounts for about a quarter of the world's energy needs and that share is expected to increase in the future the yamal lng plant is located in sebietta russia in the northeast part of yamal peninsula in the indigenous language yamal means end of the land and it literally is when the project started in 2012 there was no road or water access to savieta and everything had to be built from scratch this included a seaport terminal an international airport the plant itself and all the housing and amenities that were needed the massive dredging operations to create a deep draft channel into the new port of sevietta was conducted by the belgium firm d-e-m-e the shipping channel is 970 feet wide 970 feet wide and 50 feet deep but before construction could begin there was a major issue the polar knight not the polar knight which lasts about four months out of the year but that still didn't help see you can't really build in the arctic using conventional methods and that's due to permafrost in the northwest siberia temperatures could drop as low as minus 58 degrees fahrenheit which permanently freezes the ground as deep as 1300 feet but in the summer the top layer about six and a half feet deep which is called the active layer would thaw and turn into mud to drive in sebietta you need big wheels another issue with the mud is that it's unstable meaning traditional foundation would not work the solution was to build everything on piles for the lng plant alone 65 000 foundation piles were hammered 32 to 65 feet into the icy surface this effectively raises the plant above the ground but aside from the cold the heat was also an issue while the plant operates it would produce heat which could melt the permafrost below as a result 28 000 thermosyphon systems had to be engaged to re-freeze the primary foundation to 25 degrees fahrenheit the lng plant itself covers 444 acres which is equivalent to 250 soccer fields 200 wells at the nearby huge note and biesco gas field supply the required gas to the plant the plant consists of four trains no not that kind of train the lng trains which are basically liquefaction and purification facilities that's because for economical transportation of gas it has to be liquefied by refrigeration to below 258 degrees fahrenheit that's the boiling point of methane at atmospheric pressure but the refrigeration shrinks the gas volume by 600 times allowing for economical transportation [Music] a typical train consists of a compression area propane condenser area and methane and ethane areas before gas can be liquefied it needs to be purified because impurities can block the cryogenic sections of the plant because of the extreme environment and polar nights the plant couldn't really be built on the spot so instead a modular approach was taken with giant sections being manufactured in china and shipped to the location where everything was put together just like legos additionally multiple lng storage tanks were built the storage tanks are big enough for a boat right maybe even some fishing [Music] the first lng train was launched on december 8 2017 which signified the beginning of commercial operations the opening ceremony was attended by president vladimir putin two more lng trains were launched in the following year which was actually one year earlier than planned and you're not going to believe it on budget how often do you hear that so by the end of 2018 the plant reached a full plant capacity of 16 and a half million tons of lng per year but if ahead of schedule and on budget seems too good to be true wait until you hear this because yamal lng is located so far up north the liquefaction process in the arctic requires less energy enabling higher lng production output compared to other projects located at southern latitudes with similar equipment while the nameplate capacity of the yamal lng plant is 16 and a half million tons of lng in practice that number is closer to 18.8 million tons 14 percent more than originally anticipated and that's all due to the cold climate it's just that it's much easier to cool down natural gas when it's already minus 58 degrees fahrenheit outside keep in mind that this mega project is not purely russian the yamal lng project is a joint venture owned 50.1 percent by russian novatek 20 by france's total 20 by china's cnpc and 9.9 percent by chinese silk road fund but what made this project economically viable was the arctic lng carrier [Music] arguably the biggest piece of technological advancement made as a result of the yamal lng was the development of the new yamamax class of ships the icebreaker lng carriers developed by the finnish acre arctic engineering company these 981 foot long ships can navigate in the arctic year-round and that's because they can independently break ice of up to 2.1 meters these tankers are assigned the arc 7 classification which is the highest ice class among merchant vessels under heavy ice conditions the yamamax class tankers can travel in the channel behind one of russia's nuclear icebreakers the world's first icebreaker lng carrier christophe de margierie was completed in 2017 and was named after ceo of france's total i like his mustache it reminds me of my ex-girlfriend's dad's mustache yeah two unique design aspects of the tanker include a double acting technology and three azimuth propellers as a double acting ship the carrier has a bow that is adjusted for navigation in open water and thin ice which makes the tanker more fuel efficient but when the ice is thick it can travel a stern in other words backwards as its stern is optimized to break heavy ice without the need of a dedicated icebreaker it's worth noting that this class of ships and the sebietta harbor terminal were designed in parallel to make both as efficient as possible [Music] the yamal max class tankers are equipped with three 15 megawatt azipot type propulsion units the azipot thrusters allow for 360 degree rotation around the vertical axis the benefits of such propellers include increased ship maneuverability and the ability for the carriers to travel backwards as efficiently as they can travel forward as you can imagine this would be very beneficial as a double-acting design another important aspect of the ship's design is the containment system for the cargo while containment types differ quite a bit from each other they all serve the same purpose there are three containment systems currently on the market membrane moss and spb tank types during transportation lng is kept at -163 degrees celsius at atmospheric pressure in well-isolated tanks the yamamax lng carriers are equipped with a french gtt mark iii membrane containment system that was developed by gas transport this cryogenic membrane technology uses a stainless steel membrane and polyuthrane foam insulations which minimizes the boil off the boil off occurs when the liquefied gas inside the tank evaporates and forms a substance known as boil of gas this gas needs to be removed in order for the tank to remain at constant pressure but you don't want to waste it for this reason many lng tankers including yamal max use boil off as an energy source for propulsion in fact the ship is primarily powered by the lng boil off if more boil off gas is needed it can be forcefully generated by heating up the tank of course when the tanks are empty the ship can run on traditional diesel fuel in total 15 icebreaker lng carriers were built by devo shipbuilding in seoul south korea each ship can transport 172 600 cubic meters of lng the cost of building the 15 ships as part of the yaml lng project was 4.8 billion or 320 million dollars per ship as you probably already figured out the need for the icebreaker lng tankers is that the sea route along the arctic ocean is ice-free only two months of the year when traveling from sebieta the ships can go one of two ways tankers delivering lng to europe will take the northeast passage and they do so year round when delivering fuel to asia tankers will travel eastward via the northern sea route all the way up to the bering strait the advantage of the northern sea route is that the ships can reach asia twice as fast in just 15 days and that's compared to the more traditional routes via northeast passage and the suez canal the downside is that during winter the ice can get too thick for the lng tankers to use the northern sea route although it may still be possible with the help of a nuclear icebreaker and a convoy of tankers following behind alternatively during winter months the asia-bound cargo would have to take a longer 30-day rout it was originally estimated that the northern sea route would only be a viable route from may to november but in january of 2021 with a little help from mother nature the russian lng carrier christophe de margierie completed the first ever round trip at a speed of nine and a half knots along the northern sea route from the kara sea to china this proved that year-round navigation is possible without the help of an ice breaker we should note that the speed depends on the thickness of the ice if the ice is one and a half meters thick the ship can go backwards at a speed of five and a half knots in open waters the speed can go as high as 19 and a half knots another thing to consider is that gas fields produce gas at a constant rate but transportation is much slower in winter that's why you need more ships during winter months but in summer you can use slow steaming to save fuel so the excess ships can travel slower at a lower cost while the tankers were designed for both ice breaking and open waters having an icebreaker navigating in open waters is wasteful for this reason russia is building two transshipment hubs one at each end of the sea route where arctic carriers will transfer cargo to conventional lng carriers this will allow for arctic carriers to be the most effective at what they do best breaking the ice and cutting costs but what about the future russia plans to quadruple lng production in the yamal region by 2030. the obe lng planned development is underway and the arctic lng-2 plant is under construction and is arguably an even bigger and crazier mega project than the yamal lng arctic lng2 and lng-3 plants are also being proposed a railway link is also being built currently six more second generation icebreaker lng carriers are being built the design of the newer carriers focuses on more ice breaking capabilities and winter performance on the northern sea route this will be achieved at the compromise of less efficiency in open waters in total up to 42 new icebreaker lng carriers will be required if all the proposed lng plants are built that's a lot of gas being transported but until solar or other clean energy sources become more viable natural gas would be a great compromise check out our patreon page if you're considering supporting our channel

Channel: Not What You Think

Views: 8,167,731

Keywords: not what you think, lng, natural gas, yamal lng, total energies, icebreaker, arctic, russia

Id: XWAIhIwGL3s

Length: 15min 47sec (947 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 14 2022