Russia and Japan have agreed on building a joint liquefied natural gas plant in Vladivostok in the Russian Far East, the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri reported.
The plant will begin operation in 2017 and produce more than 5 million tons of liquefied natural gas a year. The Vladivostok project will allow Japan to secure a significant amount of LNG from Russia's eastern Siberia region and help stabilize Japan's energy supply, the paper quoted informed sources as saying.
The planned facility will require several hundreds of billions of yen in investment, the sources told the paper. The Vladivostok plant will be linked by a pipeline with the Chayanda gas field in East Siberia via Khabarovsk. After being liquefied at the plant, the gas will be shipped to Japan, the paper said.
Japan's Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry and major trading house Itochu Corp. are expected to sign a corresponding contract with Russian energy giant Gazprom by the end of this month, the paper said.
Russia has been interested in Japan's cutting-edge gas plant technology to enhance its Far East oil and gas development infrastructure while Japan, for its part, wants to diversify its LNG suppliers, many of which are currently in Southeast Asia, the paper said.
In addition, both parties are considering building a chemical plant and other facilities along with the LNG plant, the paper said.
MOSCOW, December 12 (RIA Novosti)
