Rosneft and Marubeni Sign LNG Agreement

Russian energy major Rosneft and Marubeni of Japan have signed a memorandum of co-operation in a liquefied natural gas project, as well as exploration and development of oil and gas fields.

Rosneft says the document was signed by its president and chairman, Igor Sechin, and Fumiya Kokubu, Marubeni's chief executive.

The signing marks another move by Rosneft into territory shared by its behemoth gas twin, Gazprom.

The two companies plan to consider cooperation in implementing an LNG project in Russia's Far East. This includes engineering and construction of the plant, financing, transportation of LNG, supply of equipment and machineries and LNG marketing to Japanese utilities.

Meanwhile, Gazprom announced a meeting with senior Japanese interests regarding the Investment Rationale for its Vladivostok-LNG project.

In 2011 Gazprom, the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy and Japanese consortium, the Japan Far East Gas Company, conducted a preliminary feasibility study on that project.