Gazprom said Monday that it was ready to boost supplies to Europe under a proposal by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that would reroute Europe-bound liquefied gas to Japan.
Putin proposed raising gas exports to Europe by 60 million cubic meters per day to allow higher flows of liquefied natural gas to Japan, which is battling a nuclear power crisis after the March 11 earthquake. Gazprom’s single operational LNG project, Sakhalin-2, is located close to Japan, but its annual production of 10 million tons is largely committed under long-term contracts. The proposal to increase pipeline exports would require European Union support, Gazprom Export said.
Japan’s capacity to increase imports of LNG is limited. “Japan has neither enough regasification capacity nor storage facilities. This should be taken into account,” said Valery Nesterov, energy analyst at Troika Dialog.
(Reuters)
