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Chinese money to Russian Arctic

Leaders of CNPC and Novatek share hands in front of Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin after the inking of a deal on the Yamal LNG project.

As oil major CNPC grabs a 20 percent stake in the Yamal LNG project, a series of Chinese banks are ready to provide the necessary financing.

Location

A deal between the Chinese National Petroleum Company (CNPC) and Novatek was signed in the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin and China`s Xi Jinping during the recent G20 Summit in St.Petersburg. The new Yamal LNG project consortium will come into effect on 1 December 2013 and include Novatek (60%), Total (20%) and CNPC (20%), a press release from the Russian company informs.

Commenting on the agreement, CNPC leader  Zhou Jiping says that the Yamal LNG “will help provide the quickly growing Chinese economy with ecologically clean energy resources.”

Along with the CNPC comes a significant Chinese money contribution to the project. According to Novatek, talks are currently underway with a number of Chinese banks, among them the CDB, ICBC, BoC and CCB.  

The Yamal LNG project costs are by experts expected to exceed $20 billion, newspaper Vedomosti reports.

The Yamal LNG project is based on the gas resources of Novatek`s South Tambey field. The project includes the grand development of the Sabetta port in the Ob Bay, a facility which will be built to handle big-capacity LNG tankers. The Yamal LNG plant is to be operational by year 2016 .It will have a capacity of 16,5 million tons per year.