Russia's Rosneft is considering liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in the Arctic and other regions with total annual capacity of up to 95 million tonnes, RBC reported on Tuesday.
Citing two sources close to the Russian government, RBC said the projects were considered as part of its LNG strategy at a meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak last month. Rosneft and the Russian Energy Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.
The projects are a part of Russia's plans to boost its production of LNG, a super-cooled sea-borne gas, to 140 million tonnes a year by 2035, from 30.5 million tonnes at present.
Russia already has two large LNG producing plants. Yamal LNG is led by Novatek in the Arctic, while Gazprom's Sakhalin Energy is in the far east of the country.
RBC said Rosneft, headed by Igor Sechin, a long-standing ally of President Vladimir Putin, is studying plans to build a plant known as Kara LNG with capacity of up to 30 million tonnes per year in the Arctic.
It is also looking into a possibility of setting up a plant, Taymyr LNG, also in the Arctic, with a capacity of 35-50 million tonnes per year, as part of its giant Vostok Oil energy project, in which international trader Trafigura has a 10% stake.
Rosneft also has plans to build a 15 million tonne LNG plant as part of its Sakhalin-1 project in the Russian Far East. However, a lack of natural gas resources for the plant has hobbled the implementation of the project.
