Putin Blesses Multibillion-Dollar Bet on Russia Competing in LNG - Bloomberg
▻https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-08/putin-blesses-multibillion-dollar-bet-on-russia-competing-in-lng
The кристоф де маржери/Christophe de Margerie Arctic LNG tanker
Photographer: Olga Maltseva/AFP via Getty Images
As Russia’s President Vladimir Putin oversees the official start of a $27 billion liquefied natural gas plant in the snow-covered tundra of northern Siberia, his mind may wander to its biggest competitor more than 3,000 miles away in Qatar.
While the two regions may have vastly different climates, Putin is determined to make Russia’s Arctic competitive in the fuel that turned Qatar into the richest nation per capita. On Friday, he witnessed the loading of the first icebreaking tanker from the Yamal LNG plant, built on time despite the harsh climate and in defiance of U.S. sanctions targeting its biggest shareholder.
Operator Novatek PJSC earlier this week announced the start of production at Yamal LNG, in which Total SA, China National Petroleum Corp. and China’s Silk Road Fund also hold stakes. The operator of the world’s coldest LNG plant has been under U.S. sanctions imposed three years ago as Russia’s relations with the U.S. soured.
“This is for sure a complicated project,” Putin said at a ceremony attended by the project partners and the energy minister of Saudi Arabia. “But those who started this project took a risk, and the risk was justified, and they succeeded.”
Yamal LNG plant’s site
Source: Novatek
