A joint venture of Royal Dutch/Shell, the main participant in the consortium to develop Sakhalin-2, and America's Sempra Energy is the most likely buyer of liquefied gas in the United States. Last December, they announced that they had concluded an agreement to build a liquefied gas terminal on the Pacific coast of Mexico. The project is $600 million worth. Half of the gas will be sent to western Mexico and the other half - to the south-western US states.
Sakhalin Energy's commercial director, Andy Calitz, has noted that liquefied gas supplies from Sakhalin to the Mexican coast should be profitable and will only take 12 days as compared to the 20 days of shipment from Australia or 27 days from Qatar. "This is also a political decision," he stressed hinting at America's willingness to become a Russian gas importer as part of the portfolio diversification.
