Investment commission green-lights CNPC to buy 20% of Yamal LNG - FAS chief
GORKI. Nov 13 (Interfax) - Russia's governmental commission for control over foreign investments approved during a Wednesday session the application by China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) to buy 20% of the stock in OJSC Yamal LNG from independent gas producer Novatek , the head of Russia's Federal Anti-monopoly Service (FAS), Igor Artemyev, told the press after the meeting Wednesday.
"This probably the first such major deal involving Chinese capital in the development of Russian resources, [and] on the Yamal peninsula. It means hundreds of billions of rubles and dozens of billions of dollars, since it involves the building of new infrastructure and production of natural gas on the Yamal peninsula," the FAS chief said.
"After many long years we are joining with Chinese partners to extract subsurface resources. That is of fundamental importance and very major investments," Artemyev said. Joint investments by the project members are reckoned at 900 billion rubles for the first phase.