PRESS: Novatek wants Putin’s approval for 10 foreign LNG carriers

MOSCOW, Dec 19 (PRIME) -- Russian independent gas producer Novatek has asked President Vladimir Putin to allow it to order 10 Arc7 liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers worth U.S. $3 billion at foreign shipyards with deliveries scheduled for 2023–2024, Kommersant business daily reported on Thursday quoting CEO Leonid Mikhelson’s letter.

The company plans to launch a 5 million tonne facility Ob LNG in 2023 and Zvezda, which is building 15 carriers in Russia’s Far East for Arctic LNG-2 project, will be unable to build the carriers on time, Kommersant reported.

“Construction of an additional fleet with this deadline can only be done at foreign shipyards,” the business daily quoted Mikhelson as saying in the letter. Taking into account U.S. and Qatar’s plans to order LNG carriers, the orders should be placed as soon as possible, Kommersant reported.

Sources familiar with the matter told the business daily that Novatek would likely get its approval. Novatek is yet to choose a foreign shipyard, but the list of contenders includes China’s Hudong, and Korea’s DSME, Samsung, and Hyundai.

According to Kommersant, Putin ordered Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov to consider whether Russian shipyards have the capacities to satisfy Novatek. A spokesperson for Borisov and representatives of Novatek and Zvezda declined to comment.

End