MOSCOW, October 9 (Itar-Tass) - Russia’s gas and oil giants Gazprom and Rosneft and Yamal SPG, the operator of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) project on the Yamal Peninsula in Russia’s Siberia, will fall under a new law liberalising LNG exports, Energy Minister Alexander Novak told a news conference on Wednesday.
“The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service insists on full liberalisation, while the government’s consolidated position is to ensure stage-by-stage liberalisation,” he said, adding that state-run companies and their subsidiaries developing offshore fields and Yamal SPG that is implementing the LNG project were given the green light for exports.
Novak said a bill on liberalisation of LNG exports would be submitted to the State Duma in November and be adopted by the end of the year.
Russia speeded up its efforts to draft laws liberalising exports of liquefied natural gas after the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, where Rosneft and Russia’s energy company Novatek had signed LNG contracts.
President Vladimir Putin told the forum that the process of liberalisation of LNG exports was kicked off on June 21.
Rosneft chief Sergei Sechin put forward the initiative to allow companies developing offshore fields to export liquefied natural gas at a meeting of the presidential fuel and energy commission last February. More than half of Rosneft’s Arctic shelf reserves was gas, he said.
According to expert estimates, 21 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves will not be used by the domestic market. Therefore, the only way to monetise Arctic offshore gas reserves is to liquefy gas for future exports, Sechin said.