At the invitation of Valery Bondarenko, General Director of KONAR JSC, the representative forum was held in Chelyabinsk on the premises of the Stankomash Industrial Park with involvement of leading industrial companies of Russia. During the event the participants discussed involvement of industrial facilities of the country in the LNG projects of NOVATEK. Leonid Mikhelson, Chairman of the Board of NOVATEK PJSC, highly appreciated production capabilities of the facilities located in the Industrial Park.

— The global gas market is growing faster than other markets, a main growth is in the LNG sector, — said Leonid Mikhelson opening the event. — Today, LNG consumption forecasts are adjusted upwards almost every year. At the meeting on December 8, 2017, when launching the first line of Yamal LNG in Sabetta, President Vladimir Putin set a target related to development of LNG production and Russia’s entry into a number of world leaders in LNG production. Our main target is to ensure a competitive value of Russian LNG in the world markets. In this regard, we want to make the best use of Russian equipment.

The participants of the meeting visited the high-technology facilities located on the premises of the Stankomash Industrial Park: KONAR-Cimolai plant for production of complex metal structures, machining workshop of KONAR JSC and Transneft Oil Pumps plant, and evaluated their capabilities to participate in NOVATEK projects.

— The peculiarity of our industrial site is that modern machinery productions, from production of a blank to testing of a finished product, are assembled here. Our engineering competencies allow us to participate successfully in implementation of ambitious world-class projects, such as Arctic LNG 2, — say Evgeniy Bodrov, Technical Director of KONAR JSC.

According to him, in recent years the company performed a serious preparation of production of cryogenic equipment and is able to produce and machine materials for critical operating parameters, first of all this refers to components that work at temperatures up to -196°С.

In reply to the question of impressions from visiting the company’s facilities, Leonid Mikhelson spoke very emotionally: “Only words of admiration!”

In 2017, NOVATEK PJSC and KONAR JSC entered into the strategic partnership agreement and are already cooperating on localizing equipment in Russia for use in process lines of natural gas liquefaction facilities on sea-based platforms using the best world technologies.

Valery Bondarenko noted that it was a great honor for KONAR to host such an event:

— We admire your ambitious plans to become the largest gas liquefaction company in the world, — he said, addressing to Chairman of the Board of NOVATEK PJSC. — Your plans will help not only the Russian power industry, but also can give a powerful rise to the Russian mechanical engineering. Participation in the projects that you offer is a technological challenge for us and we respond to it. Today we showed the first steps that we have already taken. Thank you for your support, I congratulate you on a successful development of NOVATEK!

Leonid Mikhelson made the entry in the book of honorary guests of the KONAR Industrial Group:

— Thank you very much for a warm welcome! I was impressed by your facilities and above all by motivation to develop further!