Gazprom, Shell Receive $5.3 Billion Loan for Sakhalin (Update1) 

By Eduard Gismatullin and Megumi Yamanaka

June 16 (Bloomberg) — OAO Gazprom, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and partners developing the Sakhalin liquefied natural gas project got a $5.3 billion loan from Japanese lenders in what they called the biggest Russian project finance deal.

Sakhalin Energy Investment Co., the project operator, received $3.7 billion from Japan Bank for International Cooperation, the Japanese government’s main overseas lender, and $1.6 billion from other commercial banks, the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia-based company said today in an e-mailed statement.

“The funds will finance the final stages of construction, testing and commissioning” of the Sakhalin-2 LNG production phase, the operator said. The project “will soon start delivering liquefied natural gas to customers in Japan, Korea and the North American West Coast.”

Gazprom, Russia’s gas-export monopoly, Shell, Mitsui & Co. and Mitsubishi Corp. are investing about $22 billion to pump crude oil and gas at Sakhalin off Russia’s Pacific coast. The first LNG cargo from Sakhalin Energy’s plant will be postponed to 2009 from the second half of this year, Shell Chief Financial Officer Peter Voser said in April.

In March, Sakhalin Energy withdrew an application for funding from U.S. and U.K. government-sponsored lenders because of delays in getting financing approval. Last year, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development canceled plans to finance the venture after Gazprom took control of the project from Shell.

Sakhalin Output

Sakhalin Energy will be able to produce about 150,000 barrels of oil a day and 9.6 million metric tons of LNG a year, Mitsubishi and Mitsui said today. “We have completed more than 90 percent” of the second-phase construction, it said.

Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd., Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. and BNP Paribas were expected to contribute funds, Nikkei English News reported June 3, without saying where it got the information.

Gazprom owns 50 percent plus one share of Sakhalin Energy. Shell owns 27.5 percent, Mitsui holds 12.5 percent and Mitsubishi has 10 percent.

LNG is natural gas chilled to a liquid to aid transportation.

To contact the reporters on this story: Eduard Gismatullin in London at[email protected]; Megumi Yamanaka in Tokyo at o[email protected]

Last Updated: June 16, 2008 05:49 EDT

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.