Russia's largest independent gas producer Novatek plans to start selling LNG produced at its Arctic Yamal project in late 2016, despite a recent delay in taking the final investment decision, the company's president Leonid Mikhelson told Russian daily Vedomosti in an interview published Wednesday.
"In the second quarter [of 2013] we plan to begin the process of signing the first [supply] contracts -- the start of sales is planned for late 2016," Mikhelson was quoted as saying in the report.
So far, Novatek has had two road shows with potential buyers of Yamal LNG, Mikhelson said, declining to name the companies.
Commenting on reasons for delaying the FID for the project, Mikhelson said that a number of decisions were pending.
"We have agreed that a number of decisions need to be taken, which [when combined] would mean taking the FID. So far, not all of them have been reached," Mikhelson was reported as saying.
Partners in Yamal LNG, Novatek with 80% and France's Total with 20%, delayed the project's FID until 2013 from late 2012, Jacques de Boisseson, president of Total E&P Russia, said in early December.
"We will be ready to take it [the FID] next year," he said at the time.
The partners in the project also raised its cost estimations to over $20 billion from the $18 billion-20 billion range set earlier, de Boisseson said at the time.
The Yamal LNG project in Russia's Arctic will see construction of three LNG trains with a capacity of around 5 million-5.5 million mt/year each. The first train is to be commissioned in late 2016, while the second and the third trains are scheduled to be added in 2017 and 2018.
