Royal DutchShell Tries to Speed Up

Royal Dutch/Shell plans to expand production at its crucial Sakhalin 2 project in Russia two years ahead of schedule after unexpectedly high demand for its liquefied natural gas, the Financial Times newspaper reported taking the information from unspecified sources.

British company Shell and its two Japanese partners, Mitsui and Mitsubishi, have approved a feasibility study on the multi-billion dollar costs of building a new gas train to increase output by 50 pct or an extra 4.8 mln tonnes a year, the newspaper said.

The consortium pledged to spend $11 bln on the Sakhalin project, including two LNG 'trains', the production facility that changes the gas into liquid.

The project has been hit by about $2 bln of cost overruns.