The Moscow Times: Chinese Banks May Invest $10 Billion in Russia's Sanctions-Hit Yamal LNG

Chinese banks are prepared to invest more than $10 billion in Russia's giant Yamal liquefied natural gas project, billionaire Gennady Timchenko, a shareholder in independent gas producer Novatek, told news agency RIA Novosti on Friday.

The project has come under pressure this year since Novatek, Russia's largest independent gas producer and the driving force behind Yamal LNG, appeared on the list of companies sanctioned by the United States and European Union over Russia's role in the Ukraine crisis.

In light of the sanctions, Novatek will work more closely with Chinese banks, RIA quoted Timchenko as saying. "Negotiations are ongoing, it's a question of conditions," he added.

Novatek owns a 60 percent stake in the company created to carry out the project, followed by France's Total and China's CNPC, which each own 20 percent.

In a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week, Novatek CEO Leonid Mikhelson said sanctions had limited the partners' ability to raise project financing. Reasserting the project's importance in the eyes of the Russian state, which is heavily dependent on revenues from oil and gas exports, President Vladimir Putin pledged government help.

Timchenko also said negotiations with China, India and other countries to sell a 9 percent stake in the Yamal LNG project were ongoing. But in light of the new conditions, investors "have begun to think and decide for themselves whether they need to get involved in this story or not," RIA quoted him as saying. MORE