Russia Looks Eastwards for Gas Exports

Russia is expanding gas exports to the Asian Pacific region which is evident from that fact that this year it is to supply 16 extra batches of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Japan as part of the Sakhalin 2 project.

The Sakhalin Island project is capable of producing 10 million tons of LNG a year. Projects third stage is likely to add another 5 millon tons to the capacity, Voice of Russia said.

President of the Russian Union of Oil and Gas Industry Workers Gennady Shmal was quoted as saying that this additional gas would be consumed by Japan as demand is on the rise. He also said that Korea and China too would be big buyers of gas.

Thanks to its acceptable price and low production costs Russian gas is quite competitive in comparison with fuel produced in other countries, Shmal said.

Third stage of the Sakhalin LNG project will get gas from Kirinskoye gas deposit which was discovered 20 years ago.