In the far eastern reaches of the Russian Federation, on the remote island of Sakhalin, CB&I designed and built Russia’s first LNG facility. The island's isolated location in the Sea of Okhotsk north of Japan, the harsh sub-arctic climate with temperatures falling below –20 degrees Centigrade, snow up to two meters deep, and the region's seismic activity combined to make this project challenging for the owner and contractors alike.

Since Sakhalin’s climate is so harsh, an innovative technique was developed to avoid the difficulties associated with curing concrete in wet or extremely cold conditions. The construction work was able to move forward throughout the year, while the concrete work was performed in the warmer months, as conditions permitted. This enabled the project to stay on schedule by reducing the number of weather delays.

It was also necessary to modify the design to prevent the LNG in the tanks from freezing the earth beneath it. Even though the tanks were being built below the frost line due to the excavation, the LNG in the tanks could potentially cool the earth enough to freeze it, which could compromise the tank foundations. To prevent this, foundation heaters were placed below the tanks to provide a constant source of heat to the earth beneath.

Since these were the first LNG storage tanks in Russia, there were no existing Russian codes that addressed LNG storage. To resolve this, CB&I engaged Russian Design Institutes to ensure local compliance and to harmonize international and client standards within the Russian system.

Chiyotec Limited / CTSD Limited selected CB&I to provide the engineering, procurement and construction for these two LNG storage tanks. Along with the two 100,000 cubic meter full containment LNG storage tanks, the scope also included two 1,630 cubic meter LNG Hortonsphere® pressure vessels and a concrete batching plant to supply concrete for the foundations and containment.