Page 6 - GLNG Week 03 2022

GLNG COMMENTARY GLNG

Arrival of Chinese investor

lifts prospects for Far

Eastern LNG project

Yakutsk LNG is unique in that it does not involve any of Russia’s

leading gas majors

INVESTMENT A Chinese energy firm has lent its support to respectively, have successfully realised LNG
what could be the first large-scale Russian liq- export projects. Rosneft, the country’s number
WHAT: uefaction plant not to be developed by one of the three gas supplier, wants to build a plant in the
China’s Zhejiang Energy country’s leading gas majors. Far East but the project has been stuck in limbo
is buying a stake in a Zhejiang Energy, a gas and power supplier in for years.
prospective LNG export east China that also imports LNG, has agreed In contrast, YATEK is a little-known company
project in the Far East. to buy a 10% stake in Yakutsk LNG, a proposed whose assets comprise only a handful of gas
liquefaction terminal on the shore of Russia’s fields in Yakutia that yield 1.7bn cubic metres
WHY: remote Yakutia region that at full capacity will per year of gas – a modest amount based on Rus-
The main target for the export up to 18mn tonnes per year (tpy) of LNG sian standards. It was rescued from bankruptcy
facility’s sales is China. to markets in Asia. in 2019 when Russian investment firm A-Prop-
The deal is worth €500mn ($567mn), the erty, owned by Russian-Armenian businessman
WHAT NEXT: project’s developer, the Yakut Fuel and Energy Albert Avdolyan, took over majority control.
Russia needs to remove Co. (YATEC), said in a statement on January 19, Yakutia is the most gas-prone region in the
barriers and enable a with closure expected in October. Eastern Siberian basin, and is home to Gaz-
greater pool of investors Russia has sizable gas deposits in a number of prom’s giant Chayandinskoye field, which has
to develop LNG projects. remote areas, and given the country’s position been pumping gas to China via the Power of
between European and Asian markets, this gives Siberia since late 2019. But as Gazprom has
it the potential to become one of the world’s exclusive access to Power of Siberia under Rus-
leading LNG suppliers. But while Novatek has sian law, other producers in the area have lim-
had success realising export projects in the Arc- ited means of monetising their resources, given
tic, other schemes have faltered. that local demand is not excessive.
So far only Gazprom and Novatek, Rus- YATEC’s plan is to launch an aggressive
sia’s largest and second-largest gas producers exploration campaign to expand its reserves

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 03 21•January•2022