Russia abandons the LNG sanctions project: gas will be used for electricity and AI

The Yakut Fuel and Energy Company (YATEK) is abandoning the Yakut LNG project, which has come under sanctions, and will direct gas to power generation and provision of data centers with it.

"The company is suspending the implementation of the Yakutsk LNG project and is focusing on new areas of gas monetization related to providing energy to digital and high—tech industries," YATEK reports.

The company announced an update of its strategy — to use natural gas to create energy-intensive projects such as data centers, mining and cloud computing.

"The company does not build or manage digital facilities on its own: their implementation is carried out by partners interested in long-term gas supplies and the development of digital infrastructure in the region." — explained in YATEK.

According to her, at the first stage, the partners started building capacities with a total generation of 200 MW.

In the future, Yakutia may become the largest platform for energy-intensive digital projects in the Far East, the company estimates, citing data that potential gas supplies for the domestic market and digital projects are estimated at over 7.6 billion cubic meters per year.

The company does not mention sanctions, but, obviously, they were the reason for the change of course. YATEK planned to build a plant on the shore of the Sea of Okhotsk and lay a gas pipeline 1.3 thousand kilometers long to it from the fields of Yakutia.

On the one hand, the plant is attractive because it is located near Asian markets. On the other hand, independent expert Alexander Sobko noted to Kommersant, even historically, the cost of LNG in it was predicted to be too high due to the long onshore gas pipeline to the coast.