The first LNG plant in Russia to be opened this week belongs to Gazprom and is a hope for Japan which is looking for the ways to advance the countrys energy security
Russian and Japanese leaders will jet to the Pacific island of Sakhalin this week for the debut of Russia's first LNG plant. President Dmitry Medvedev and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, with a delegation of senior energy officials and executives, will watch one of the world's largest liquefied natural gas plants come on stream Wednesday.
Gazprom controls the Sakhalin-2 project, which will produce 6 million tons of LNG this year, or around two-thirds of its annual capacity of 9.6 million tons.
Gazprom bought control of the $22 billion project after a prolonged crisis that forced Royal Dutch Shell, the project's former leader, and its partners to reduce their holdings. Analysts had expected that the battle would lead to delays.
Shell is now a minority shareholder along with Japan's Mitsubishi and Mitsui.
Resource-poor Japan, the top consumer of LNG, seems unshaken by the deal's murky past.
The ultramodern plant will dispatch specially created tankers around the world from Sakhalin, whose southern tip is a short boat trip from Japan.
The majority of exports - 65 percent - will go to Japan, while the remainder will be sold to South Korea and the LNG-hungry North American market via a Mexican terminal and on to the U.S. West Coast.
Source: Reuters
Author:
Ksenia Kochneva
