NOVO OGAREVO, October 29 (Itar-Tass) —— Gazprom will build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Vladivostok in 2018.
The 220 billion rouble plant will make at least 10 million tonnes of LNG a year. “The deadline is 2018,” Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin on Monday, October 29.
“An investment feasibility study will be ready in December. After that we will start assessing capital investments,” Miller said, adding that it would amount to about 220 billion roubles.
Miller said that the LNG to be made by the plant would be exported to the Asia Pacific region, primarily to Japan.
At the APEC Summit in September, Miller and Ichiro Takahara, Director General of the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy under the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry held negotiations and signed a Memorandum on the Vladivostok-LNG project in the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.
The Memorandum is expected to boost the comprehensive cooperation in order to promote the project including its financing and gas marketing aspects.
“By signing the memorandum we are approaching to the Vladivostok-LNG project implementation. It will have a great meaning for developing the eastern part of the Unified Gas Supply System of Russia as well as raising Russian gas supplies to Asia-Pacific markets including Japan,” announced Alexei Miller upon signing of the document. “I would like to emphasise that the Japanese market has an advantageous size and is considered a top-priority in the Far East. Gazprom and our Japanese partners with high skills in LNG projects already have a successful experience of cooperation within the existing projects,” Miller said.
“The Asia-Pacific region is the most receptive market in the world, and within the next few years the gas volumes delivered there by Gazprom will surpass the volumes supplied to Europe. The Eastern Gas Program is our top priority and is developing rapidly, and considering the growing gas demand in the Asia-Pacific region, the decisions will soon be taken to speed up the Program,” he said.
Japan is in the fourth place by energy consumption in the world. In the fiscal year of 2011 the country consumed 83 million tonnes of LNG. The share of natural gas in the Japanese energy consumption is currently at 14 percent and is expected to grow. Japan imports 96 percent of consumed natural gas in the form of LNG and is the world's largest LNG importer.
In 2011 according to the agreements signed with the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy under the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and Japanese consortium JAPAN FAR EAST GAS Co., Ltd. (comprised of ITOCHU, JAPEX, MARUBENI, INPEX, CIECO), Gazprom and the Japanese partners performed the joint feasibility study on the options of natural gas utilization near Vladivostok, natural gas and gas chemical products transmission and marketing from the vicinity of Vladivostok to potential purchasers in Asia-Pacific countries.
On June 24, 2012 the Russian Energy Ministry and the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry signed the Memorandum of Understanding confirming the intent of the countries’ governments to provide the necessary assistance to the Vladivostok-LNG project, Gazprom said.