Gazprom confirms plans to build LNG plant in Far East

TOKYO, April 26 (Itar-Tass) - Russia's gas giant Gazprom has confirmed
that it signed an agreement with Japan's consortium to evaluate the
project for the construction of the LNG plant near Vladivostok, the
company's press service said on Tuesday.
"The parties signed an agreement on conducting a joint feasibility
study of the construction of the LNG plant and the gas chemical complex
near Vladivostok," the press service said.
The document also envisions capacity evaluation of a pilot project on
gas compression near Vladivostok for its further shipment, the source said.
"The evaluation will be of great importance for increasing Gazprom's
future gas supplies from Russia to countries of the Asia-Pacific Region,
including that for reliable power supply of Japan," said Alexander
Ananenkov, the deputy CEO of Gazprom after the meeting between
representatives of the Russian gas giant and Japan's consortium in Moscow.
According to Japan's business daily Nikkei, representatives of Gazprom
and Japan's consortium including Itochu, Marubeni, Inpex and Japan
Petroleum Exploration, agreed on Monday to begin capacity evaluation of
the construction of two plants that will produce 5 million tonnes of
liquefied natural gas a year each. They plan to complete the evaluation
before the end of the year.
Natural gas for these plants will be pumped from gas fields in Russia'
s Far East, in particular from the Chayandinsky gas field in Yakutia,
which reserves are estimated at 1.24 trillion cubic meters.
The plants' construction will begin in 2013 and LNG production - in
2017. Liquefied natural gas from plants will be shipped to Japan and other
Asian countries.
Japan is the world's biggest LNG importer. Last year its LNG import
exceeded 70 million tonnes. Russia exports liquefied natural gas to Japan
from Sakhalin, where it is produced within the framework of the Sakhalin-2
gas development project.
After the devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11 Japan's
northwest region felt the lack of fuel, as a result Moscow and Tokyo
agreed to increase gas supplies.