Russian village building LNG supply plant for new hospital after COVID-19 outbreak

Murmansk governor Andrey Chibis said the authorities had contained the outbreak in Belokamenka, where Russian gas producer Novatek is building the plant, and construction of the plant had not been suspended.

But the Murmansk region, which borders Finland and Norway, must be prepared for a possible second wave of the virus, he said.

“We clearly understand that the virus is likely to stay for a long time,” Chibis told Reuters by telephone. “We are preparing for a (possible) second wave ... opening up a temporary and fully-equipped hospital with nearly 700 beds.”

The hospital is expected to cost around 1 billion roubles ($14 million) to build in Belokamenka, officials said, and will be funded by an emergency transfer from the federal budget.

Its construction underlines not only the health concerns in many areas far from Moscow, the Russian region with the most coronavirus cases, but also the importance of LNG for the world’s biggest country.

The plant under construction at Belokamenka is intended to produce gravity-based platforms for Novatek’s future LNG facilities and is vital to the company’s plans to produce as much LNG as Qatar by the end of this decade.

More than two-thirds of the nearly 3,000 confirmed coronavi

Comments

{{ error }}
{{ comment.comment.Name }} • {{ comment.timeAgo }}
{{ comment.comment.Text }}