BEIJING, December 26. /TASS/. Chinese and Russian companies will continue normal trade and economic interaction, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a briefing, commenting on US sanctions against the Arctic LNG 2 project with the participation of Chinese companies.
"China has always opposed unilateral sanctions, <...> China and Russia will continue to carry out normal trade and economic cooperation based on the spirit of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit," Mao Ning said.
She stressed that trade and economic cooperation between China and Russia "should not be subject to interference or restrictions from any third party."
"Facts have shown that sanctions and pressure do not solve problems but cause side effects," Mao Ning noted.
Participants in the Arctic LNG 2 project are Russia’s largest independent natural gas producer Novatek (60%), the French corporation TotalEnergies (10%), Chinese CNPC (10%) and CNOOC (10%), as well Japanese consortium Japan Arctic LNG (10%), in which 25% belongs to Mitsui and 75% to JOGMEC. The project involves the construction of three production lines for the production of liquefied natural gas with a capacity of 6.6 million tons per year.
On November 2, the US Treasury put Arctic LNG 2 on its sanctions list. The agency also set January 31, 2024 as the deadline for completing transactions with Arctic LNG 2.
Earlier the Kommersant business daily reported that the foreign shareholders of this project - the French TotalEnergies, the Chinese CNPC and CNOOC and the consortium of the Japanese Mitsui and JOGMEC - declared force majeure on participation in the project. This can lead to the fact that Arctic LNG 2 will lose foreign funding and long-term contracts for the export of LNG, the publication said. According to these data, Chinese and Japanese companies asked the US authorities about the possibility of withdrawing LNG supplies from sanctions.