Business Day (South Africa): Shell, US in liquefied natural gas talks: “A consortium led by oil giant Royal Dutch/Shell is in the final stages of negotiating the first-ever contract to sell Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) to North America” (ShellNews.net)

TOKYO - A consortium led by oil giant Royal Dutch/Shell is in the final stages of negotiating the first-ever contract to sell Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) to North America, a spokesman said Thursday.

"We are in advanced (stage of) negotiations for the sale of LNG to North America. But no deal has been signed yet," said the spokesman for Sakhalin Energy, a joint venture comprising Royal Dutch/Shell, Japan's Mitsui and Co. and Mitsubishi Corp.

Sakhalin Energy's Sakhalin II project, one of the largest integrated oil and gas projects ever undertaken, made its first deals in May 2003 to provide a combined 2.3 million tons of LNG a year to two Tokyo gas and power utilities starting in 2007.

They marked the first arrangements to export Russian natural gas to the Asia-Pacific region.

An LNG production factory on the island of Sakhalin in Russia's Far East, the first such facility in Russia, will be completed by 2007, in the second phase of development of the project.

This phase, which will cost 10 billion dollars, also includes the construction of two new offshore platforms, oil and gas pipelines running through the island and an oil exporting terminal.

The reserves of Sakhalin II, based off Sakhalin island, are estimated at over one billion barrels (150 million tons) of crude oil and more than 500 billion cubic metres of natural gas.

AFP  

http://www.bday.co.za/bday/content/direct/1,3523,1701177-6078-0,00.html