MOSCOW, August 16. /TASS/. Novatek has completed the installment of the LNG train on a gravity-based structure comprising the first phase of the company's large-scale Arctic LNG 2 plant on the underbase foundation on the seabed at the Utrenniy Terminal on the Gydan Peninsula, the company said in a statement.

"We passed an important milestone in the Arctic LNG 2 project having completed the marine towing of the LNG train, fully assembled at the LNG Construction Center, and its installation at the Utrenniy Terminal," Chairman of the Management Board Leonid Mikhelson was quoted as saying.

"The innovative GBS-based construction concept allows us to put new LNG facilities into operation faster and with lower capital expenditures. Our LNG Construction Center in the Murmansk Region offers a unique advantage of serial LNG trains fabrication: we are now at an advanced stage of building the Arctic LNG 2 project's second train, and we are also starting the work on the third train's GBS," he said.

The first LNG train will now be hooked up to onshore upstream facilities to complete the commissioning activities and commence liquefaction operations, the company noted.

The 6.6-mtpa process train was towed by sea from the LNG Construction Center in the Murmansk Region to the Gydan Peninsula and was installed on the underbase foundation built on the seabed near the shore.

The unique marine towing operation took 22 days to complete. The 330 m long, 152 m wide and 90 m high platform weighs 640,000 tons and is the heaviest object ever moved in the history of the global LNG industry, Novatek said.