President Dmitry Medvedev and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak oversaw the signing of a preliminary agreement between gas export monopoly Gazprom and South Korea's state-run Kogas to send 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas to South Korea over a 30-year period starting in 2015, a Gazprom spokeswoman said.
Both companies have yet to determine the route for gas deliveries, but Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov said Monday that Russia had offered to lay the pipeline via North Korea, a relatively cheap but risky option considering Pyongyang's unpredictable policies, analysts say.
If talks with North Korea fail, Russia will sell the fuel to South Korea in the form of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, the Moscow Times reports.
A final agreement between Moscow and Seoul is expected in 2010, when a study on the route is completed.
The gas contracts are estimated at $90 billion, given the current prices, but Kupriyanov declined to put an exact price tag on the agreement, saying the talks would continue.
Author:
Ksenia Kochneva
