TOKYO, December 26. /TASS/. Japanese participants in Arctic LNG 2 refused to comment on the situation around this project after it became subject to the US sanctions.
"Our company has a secrecy agreement with the interested parties. Therefore, at this stage we cannot make comments on the issue of interest to you," an employee of the press service of the Mitsui trade and investment corporation told TASS. The second Japanese participant in Arctic LNG 2, the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC), took the same position.
"You are interested in the specific content of the project. We would like to refrain from making any comments now," said a representative of the press service of this government agency.
Earlier, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa also refused to comment on the situation around Arctic LNG 2. At a press conference in Tokyo, she referred to the fact that this issue is relevant only to the activities of private businesses. Nevertheless, the minister assured that the government will take all measures to ensure a stable supply of energy resources to the country.
American sanctions
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.