PRESS: Novatek asks Putin for 20 bln rbl for Kamchatka LNG terminal

MOSCOW, Nov 20 (PRIME) -- Leonid Mikhelson, CEO of independent gas producer Novatek, has asked Russian President Vladimir Putin for 20 billion rubles for construction of a sea terminal for transshipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) on the Kamchatka Peninsula, Kommersant business daily report on Wednesday.

The money is to be spent on creation of federal infrastructure, which a private investor is not allowed to own. Novatek plans to invest 60 billion rubles in the terminal together with France’s Total, China’s CNPC and CNOOC, and Japan’s Mitsui, the business daily said.

Sources familiar with the matter told the business daily that Putin ordered Finance Minister Anton Siluanov and Deputy Prime Ministers Yury Trutnev and Maxim Akimov to study the request. A Novatek spokesperson said that state financing should be provided already in 2020 so that the company can launch the terminal at the end of 2022.

Novatek wants to build the terminal with an annual capacity of 20 million tonnes to optimize logistics and transportation costs. Under a construction plan, approved by the government in March, budget was to allocate 30.5 billion rubles initially. The sum was gradually cut to 28 billion rubles and even less later.

In October, Kommersant reported that the government had failed to find the money for the terminal and had not included it into the 2020–2022 budget draft.

(63.7730 rubles – U.S. $1)

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