Silk Road Foundation to become Yamal LNG shareholder
© RIA Novosti. Mikhail Voskresenskiy

Silk Road Foundation to become Yamal LNG shareholder

The Chinese Silk Road Foundation will become a shareholder of the Yamal LNG project, the Arctic-Info news agency reported. The Chinese investment foundation and Novatek signed a framework agreement on purchasing the 9.9-percent share in Beijing in the presence of President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

"We hope that our joining the project will promote the early attraction of common external financing for the project and the further development of Sino-Russian cooperation in the energy sector," Silk Road Foundation President Wang Yangji said.

According to Novatek's press service, the deal will be closed after specified conditions are met, including necessary approvals.

As a result of the deal, the shares in Yamal LNG will be distributed as follows: Novatek — 50.1 percent, French Total — 20 percent, Chinese CNPC — 20 percent and the Chinese Silk Road Foundation — 9.9 percent.

"We welcome the Silk Road Foundation's joining the Yamal LNG project. This is a continuation of our mutually beneficial cooperation with our Chinese partners in developing Russian Arctic gas projects," Novatek Chairman of the Board Leonid Mikhelson said.

The Yamal LNG project includes the construction of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) production plant with a capacity of 16.5 million tonnes of LNG per year at the resource base of the Yuzhno-Tambeyskoye field on the Yamal Peninsula.