By Nesa Subrahmaniyan and Christian Schmollinger
June 12 (Bloomberg) — OAO Gazprom, Russia’s natural-gas export monopoly, said overseas shipments will increase 11 percent by 2015 as it invests in plants that turn the fuel into liquid for transportation by ships.
Overseas sales may rise to 180 billion cubic meters from 161.5 billion cubic meters last year, Gazprom Deputy Chief Executive Officer Alexander Medvedev said at the two-day Asia Oil and Gas Conference in Kuala Lumpur today. The Baltic liquefied natural gas project will start to supply as much as 7 million metric tons a year to Atlantic markets by 2012, he said.
The company would like to increase its stake in the Sakhalin-3 project being developed by OAO Rosneft, Russia’s state-owned oil company, and Sakhalin-4 where BP Plc is exploring for oil and gas, he said in an interview. Gazprom in December took a controlling stake in Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s Sakhalin-2 venture for $7.45 billion.
“With respect to Sakhalin, Gazprom is targeting to become a major player,” Medvedev said. “We see Sakhalin providing export opportunities mainly based on LNG.”
The company may build a second LNG plant on Sakhalin Island or mainland Russia to increase supplies, he said.
The Baltic LNG project would ship gas from outside St. Petersburg to markets in Europe. The project may cost as much as $5 billion, Medvedev said. Gazprom is considering choosing its partner in the export terminal project among four companies from Canada, Japan and Europe.
The Russian company and Malaysia’s state Petroliam Nasional Bhd. agreed today to jointly identify gas development projects worldwide through a partnership.
Gazprom will invest $20 billion in exploration this year, he added.
To contact the reporters on this story: Nesa Subrahmaniyan in Kuala Lumpur at [email protected] ; Christian Schmollinger in Kuala Lumpur at [email protected] .
Last Updated: June 12, 2007 06:03 EDT
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