Japan attracted to Russia at the right price

摘要

Japanese firms are taking advantage of new Russian LNG projects as they pursue supplies. But Tokyo wants significant contract price cuts in return for any generous financial support to back such projects. Japanese trading firm Marubeni and upstream group Sodeco signed LNG import deals with Russian state-con- trolled energy firm Rosneft on 21 June. This was only the second purchase agreement for Russian LNG by Japanese firms since a 2003 deal for supply from the Sakhalin 2 pro- ject. Marubeni and Sodeco will take 1.25mn t/yr and 1mn t/yr of LNG, respectively, after 2019 from a $15bn project pro- posed by Rosneft and ExxonMobil to liquefy Sakhalin 1 gas. Marubeni is in talks with Rosneft to co-operate on the pro- posed 10mn t/yr LNG project.