OAO Gazprom, the world's largest gas producer, and Petro-Canada are on the "edge" of an agreement to build a US$1.5 billion liquefied natural gas plant in Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
Petro-Canada, based in Calgary, has been negotiating with Gazprom for more than two years to build a plant near St Petersburg to supply fuel to a regasification terminal at Gros-Cacouna, Quebec. The Quebec terminal is expected to cost an additional US$500 million.
"Petro-Canada and Gazprom are really on the edge of undertaking a really major project," Putin told Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper during talks between the two leaders ahead of the G8 summit of leading nations in St Petersburg. "I would like to express my support."
Russia, which holds a third of the world's natural-gas reserves, wants to start exporting the fuel in liquid form to the US, the world's biggest energy consumer. Canada hopes to turn itself into a key transit point for liquefied natural gas shipped to North America, in part by allowing gas companies to bypass more stringent regulatory requirements along the US's heavily populated eastern seaboard. At least eight Canadian gas projects are slated for construction by the end of this decade.
Putin in February said Russia could become the third-biggest energy supplier to the US by the end of the decade, from No. 8 now, once Moscow-based Gazprom develops Shtokman, an Arctic offshore field the Russian company hopes will produce liquefied natural gas for shipment to the US.
Gazprom plans by 2011 to produce 22.5 billion cubic meters a year of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, which can be shipped in tankers, allowing greater flexibility of delivery than through pipelines.
Chevron Corp, based in San Ramon, California, and Houston-based ConocoPhillips are among the five companies being considered by Gazprom for a role in the US$20 billion project.
The Quebec terminal will process about 14 million cubic meters a day of LNG, and the Russian plant could produce as much as 20 million cubic meters to supply additional customers, Petro-Canada chief executive officer Ron Brenneman said in March, when the two companies agreed to begin initial engineering studies on building a gas-liquefaction plant.
The two leaders will coordinate efforts to reach an agreement to build the plant.
"We believe that such growth and development of the LNG market will play an important role in enhancing global energy security," Putin and Harper said in a joint statement after the talks.
"It looks as though it will go forward," Christopher Westdal, Canada's ambassador to Russia, told reporters after the meeting between Putin and Harper.
Harper and Putin also said in the joint statement that they will "fully respect market principles and ensure that open, clear and predictable policy and regulatory frameworks are in place."
Harper, in his first appearance at a G8 summit, is leading efforts by the world's biggest economies to gain greater access to Russian natural gas.
In his discussion with Putin, Harper outlined how Canada has benefited from private investment into its own energy industry, a senior Canadian official in St Petersburg said after the meeting.
Canada sits on the largest pool of oil reserves outside of the Middle East, including crude contained in the nation's tar sands, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
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