Saint Petersburg's company wins role in Sakhalin-2 gas project

Saint Petersburg's Star-Energetics (Zvezda-Energetika), which builds machinery for the energy industry, will have a role in the project Sakhalin-2. It will build a modern, 19.2 megawatt diesel-fueled, automatically controlled electric-generating station in the Sakhalin village of Prigorodnoye, the company announced at a press briefing Monday. The contract for the delivery, erection and startup work on the station has been signed.

It may be remembered that, as part of the second stage of Sakhalin-2, the Sakhalin Energy Investment Co. is building Russia's first, and the world's most powerful, plant to liquefy natural gas, with an annual capacity of 9 million tons. It will consist of two technological lines, four reservoirs and a harborage from which the natural gas will be loaded into tankers. The filling will be done four kilometers from shore. Possible customers for Sakhalin natural gas include Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China. Sakhalin-2 is expected to use the Piltun-Astokhodskoye petroleum source (estimated capacity: 140 million tons) and the Lunskoye condensed-gas source (410 billion cubic meters of gas), both on Sakhalin's continental shelf in the Sea of Okhotsk.

Star-Energetics was founded in 2001 with an original capitalization of about $34,000 and 100 shares, all owned by Gazpromenergomash and Finek-Consult. Net profits of Star-Energetics (Saint Petersburg) in 2002 were up 7.2 times over 2001 and came to approximately $330,000. Expected company revenues for 2003 are projected to reach $30 million.