OREANDA-NEWS. July 29, 2010. The Gazprom headquarters hosted today a working meeting between Alexander Ananenkov, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee and Manabu Miyagawa, Economic Affairs Minister of the Japanese Embassy in Russia.

The parties discussed current issues and prospects for developing the partnership of Russia and Japan in the oil and gas sector. Special attention was paid to cooperation within the Eastern Gas Program, in particular, to building gas processing and gas chemical facilities in Eastern Russia.

The meeting participants emphasized the importance of starting the investment rationale preparation for the project on liquefied/compressed natural gas production and offloading facilities construction near Vladivostok.

In addition, Alexander Ananenkov informed Manabu Miyagawa on the status of the Sakhalin – Khabarovsk – Vladivostok gas trunkline project that provides technical capacities for additional gas supply to Asia-Pacific countries including Japan.
Background

With its scarce domestic energy resources, Japan is the world’s fourth largest energy consumer. The country annually consumes some 80 billion cubic meters of gas. The share of gas in the Japanese energy mix is currently equal to 14 per cent and it is likely to grow. 100 per cent of imported gas is delivered in the form of LNG making Japan the world’s top LNG importer.

Gazprom and the Natural Resources and Energy Agency under the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry of Japan signed the Framework Agreement of Cooperation on November 21, 2005. The Agreement sets forth the key areas of bilateral cooperation in the gas sector. The Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC) was established to implement the Agreement. The Committee held its first meeting in January 2007. The Committee comprises a Joint Working Group.

On December 12, 2008 Gazprom signed two Agreements with Itochu Corporation and Japan’s Natural Resources and Energy Agency to elaborate a joint investment rationale for the gas processing plant/gas chemical complex construction project based on the feedstock from the Sobinskoye field.

On May 12, 2009 Gazprom signed the Memorandum of Understanding with Japan’s Natural Resources and Energy Agency to jointly prepare a preliminary research on creating facilities for liquefied/compressed natural gas production near Vladivostok.

The September 3, 2007 Order by the Russian Industry and Energy Ministry approved the Development Program for an integrated gas production, transportation and supply system in Eastern Siberia and the Far East, taking into account potential gas exports to China and other Asia-Pacific countries (Eastern Gas Program). Gazprom was identified by the Russian Government as the Program execution coordinator.