Energy Minister: Russia will increase LNG exports from Arctic and Sakhalin to China

The Russian Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev said that the Russian Energy Ministry plans to increase LNG imports from China through the Arctic LNG 2 project and Sakhalin 2 project, and "serious progress" has been made, according to Expert magazine.

Arctic LNG 2, which is 60 percent owned by Russia's Novatek has been shipping LNG since last summer. Cargoes are being delivered to the Beihai LNG Terminal and two storage facilities in Russia.

Tsivilev, quoted by Expert as saying that Russia "plans" to increase its supplies to China of both pipeline gas and liquefied gas (LNG), notably from the Arctic LNG 2 project and Sakhalin 2 project.

We are making progress together in a significant way. The prospects for energy co-operation between Russia, India and China are excellent.

Tsivilev was asked about the price of gas via the proposed Power of Siberia 2 pipe. He said this is a question that should be addressed to Gazprom and CNPC. However, he did add that a lot of work has been done in regards to settlements using national currencies.

Tsivilev stated that the U.S. tariffs on India imposed in an effort to force India to stop purchasing Russian oil failed. He claimed that Russia is involved in the construction Kudankulam, India's biggest nuclear power plant.

Tsivilev stated that Russia was planning to build what is essentially a new Russian electrical power system. He stated that the goal was to have 88 gigawatts in various power generation capacities, including 35 gigawatts thermal power by 2042.

He said that in order to reach Russia's goal of increasing oil production to 540 millions tons per year by the year 2030, it would be necessary to develop "hard to recover" reserves.

He said that "fine-tuning of the tax regime" was clearly needed, and added that the Ministry worked to "incentivise development of certain types of reserves". Guy Faulconbridge, Guy Faulconbridge (Reporting)

(source: Reuters)