LNG for Japan

While Alaska ponders the world moves on. Yomiuri Shimbun reports that Russia and Japan are closing a deal for a 5 mmtpa LNG plant in Vladivostok on the Japan Sea.

The plant would begin operation in 2017, and produce more than 5 million tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) a year, informed sources said Friday. The Vladivostok project will allow Japan to procure a significant amount of LNG from Russia's eastern Siberia region, thereby helping stabilize Japan's energy supply, the sources said.

Indications are that the Japanese side, which includes the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry and major trading house Itochu Corp., would sign a construction feasibility survey contract with Russia's state-run gas company Gazprom by the end of the month, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Russia has been interested in Japan's cutting-edge gas plant technology to enhance its Far East oil and gas development infrastructure. Japan, for its part, wants to diversify its LNG suppliers, many of which are currently in Southeast Asia, they said.

The Vladivostok plant capacity is roughly equal to the proposed Kitimat LNG plant. Both plants are about 15% of the size of a possible, though not probable Alaska LNG Valdez facility. The proposed Russian plant will be fed by the Khabarovsk-Vladivostok pipeline: