Page 15 - GLNG Week 38

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Novatek gets $611mn Gazprombank

loan for LNG storage facilities

INVESTMENT RUSSIAN LNG exporter Novatek has secured a the Kamchatka terminal had failed to attract any
€522mn ($611mn) loan from state lender Gaz- bids.
prombank to build LNG floating storage facil- The terminals are due to come on stream just
ities at transhipment terminals it is building in before the first train of Novatek’s 19.8mn tonne
Murmansk and Kamchatka. per year (tpy) Arctic LNG plant begins produc-
The facilities will be built at South Korea’s tion in 2023. The plant’s two other trains are due
Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineer- to start up in 2024 and 2026.
ing shipyard at a cost of $748mn. They will be The Arctic LNG-2 project, where Novatek
delivered ahead of the terminals’ launch at the is partnered with France’s Total, China’s CNPC
end of 2022. Gazprombank’s loan has a 16-year and CNOOC and Japan’s Mitsui and JOGMEC,
duration. has a cost of $21bn. The scheme has reportedly
Novatek is building the transhipment termi- lined up $9.5bn in financing from international
nals to ease the supply of LNG from its export banks, including some from France, China and
projects in the Russian Arctic to customers in Japan. (See previous story) Additional funding is
Europe and Asia. Specialised Arctic ice-class expected to come from domestic lenders, includ-
LNG carriers will offload their cargoes at the ing state-owned Sberbank.
terminals for pick-up by standard LNG tankers, The rest will some from the project’s equity
cutting both delivery times and costs. partners.
The transhipment facilities were previously While these funding arrangements at Arctic
projected to cost RUB700bn ($920mn) each. In LNG-2 are not yet finalised, Novatek has closed
August, NewsBase reported that a second ten- financing deals for the construction of a fleet of
der held by the Russian port operator to build carriers to transport the project’s gas.™

MIDDLE EAST

US pinning hopes on LNG exports

in push to hit Turkey trade target

POLICY LNG exports to Turkey from the US could from $75bn to $100bn.
play a key role in the countries’ reaching their “Despite the economic challenges faced by
bilateral trade target of $100bn, US Secretary of both nations during the COV-19 pandemic, the
Commerce Wilbur Ross said on September 22 US is committed to pursuing more commer-
during the 38th American-Turkish Conference, cial opportunities with Turkey,” Ross told the
held virtually. conference.
Turkey’s spot LNG imports from the US grew However, he added: “It is of great concern that
by 144% y/y to reach 2.16bcm in the first half of US exports to Turkey have fallen from $11.7bn to
the year, as Turkey—nearly entirely depend- $10bn between 2014 and 2019.”
ent on imports to meet its oil and gas needs— The number of US companies operating in
reduced its intake of Russian and Iranian piped Turkey stood at around 1,700, Ross noted, add-
gas supplies, but considerably upped its purchase ing that 60 have regional headquarters in the
of Azerbaijani piped gas and US LNG gas. “The country.
US suddenly became the second largest [LNG] Ross also invited Turkish businesses to
supplier to the Turkish market [behind Algeria] participate in an investment summit set for
in the first half of 2020. The main reason was that next June in Washington, saying: “We look
they were competitive,” an official said after the forward to deepening both our economic
data on the changing supply relationships were and commercial relationship in the years to
released. come.”
Trade between Turkey and the US last year The annual American-Turkish Conference
reached a volume of $20.6bn, with the US in defi- is co-organised by the Turkey-US Business
cit by $600mn. In June last year, Turkish Presi- Council (TAIK) of Turkey’s Foreign Economic
dent Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US counterpart Relations Board (DEIK) and the US Chamber
Donald Trump raised the bilateral trade goal of Commerce.™

Week 38 25•September•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P15