OREANDA-NEWSA working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Masami Iijima, Representative Director and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Mitsui, took place at the Gazprom headquarters today.

The parties addressed partnership prospects in LNG sector, focusing on, among other things, joint efforts in expanding the Sakhalin II project through constructing the third train of the LNG plant.

Particular attention was paid to the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding on LNG bunkering studies. Pursuant to the document, the companies will conduct feasibility and marketing studies with regard to the bunkering of marine vessels with LNG in Russia’s Far East and the Asia-Pacific region.

Russia's only LNG plant is operating under the Sakhalin II project. The Sakhalin II operator is Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd. (Gazprom – 50 per cent plus one share, Shell – 27.5 per cent minus one share, Mitsui – 12.5 per cent, and Mitsubishi – 10 per cent). On 2015, Gazprom and Shell signed the Memorandum on implementing the construction project for the third production train of the LNG plant. At present, the development of the FEED documents for the third train is nearing completion. In 2015, the plant produced 10.8 million tons of LNG, exceeding the design capacity by 1.2 million tons.