Novatek: LNG sales at terminals in Murmansk, Kamchatka to assist in halting market speculation

BANGALORE. Feb 6 (Interfax) - Launching gas sales at the transshipment hubs in Kamchatka and Murmansk should assist in halting speculation on the market, Novatek CEO Leonid Mikhelson told reporters in Bangalore on the sidelines of India Energy Week.

"This year we plan to commission two transshipment points; floating gas storage facilities. One in Murmansk for the western border of Russia, the second in Kamchatka for the eastern border of - this will be the most comfortable option in the future for consumers in the Asia-Pacific region. We hope that the presence of a constant real volume of LNG at these points will lead to price stabilization in the market: We hope that both futures and speculative hedging in the LNG market will stabilize," he said.

Two LNG transshipment complexes under construction at Kamchatka and the Murmansk Region are designed to ensure efficient LNG transportation from Arctic LNG 2 and other Novatek projects by organizing reloading from Arc7 ice-class LNG tankers to conventional vessels. Each of the terminals includes a floating LNG storage facility with capacity of 360,000 cubic meters, and with two ship-to-ship transshipment points.