KHABAROVSK, Russia, April 25 (RIA Novosti) – The head of Russia’s Rosneft has asked Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev for help in solving the issue of connecting the company’s projects to the Sakhalin-2 natural gas transit system in the country’s Far East.
Igor Sechin, the energy company’s head, said that the existing system needs to be extended to the port of Yeletsky where a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility will be built, but both Gazprom and Shell have refused to participate.
“I would like to once again turn to Gazprom and to you, Dmitry Anatolyevich [Medvedev] with a request to solve the issue of connecting to the Sakhalin-2 gas transport system. It is urgently needed for transporting gas to the port of Yeletsky where Rosneft’s Far East LNG facility will be built. We have so far been declined by Gazprom and the projects operator Shell,” Sechin said during a government commission meeting on social and economic development in the Far East.
“We believe that these refusals are not in line with the current legislature, and would ask for your support in connecting [to the system],” Sechin said.
Meanwhile, Rosneft intends to triple its investment in the Far East, Sechin said.
He earlier said that Rosneft investments in the Far Eastern Federal District increased from 19 billion rubles ($530 million) up to 37 billion rubles ($1.0 billion) in the period 2011-2013, with a further planned increase to 79 billion rubles ($2.2 billion) next year.
