Russia’s largest independent gas producer Novatek has inked a co-operation pact with a pair of Japanese players to develop liquefied natural gas transshipment terminals for its LNG projects in West Siberia.
The agreement opens the door for Mitsui OSK Lines and Japan Bank for International Cooperation to gain participation interests in the terminal complexes to be built at Kamchatka and Murmansk, as well as to provide possible financing for these projects.
The terminals are intended to serve both the producing Yamal LNG project and under-development Arctic LNG 2 scheme, located on the Yamal and Gydan peninsulas in the Yamal-Nenets region of West Siberia.
Novatek’s executive chairman Leonid Mikhelson said the pact was an expansion of its existing “mutually beneficial co-operation” with Japanese companies on the two LNG schemes.
It comes as the Japanese government pledged investments of around $10 billion by the country's private and public sectors in LNG infrastructure projects worldwide.
"The construction of the Kamchatka and Murmansk transshipment complexes will help to optimise logistics and maximise the efficiency of LNG deliveries from Yamal and Gydan to key LNG markets of the Asia-Pacific region, including Japan, the largest global LNG consumer,” Mikhelson said.
Final arrangements for the transshipment terminal projects are expected to be reached by year-end.