Russian gas company Novatek will finance a new ship building facility on Kola Bay, according to the Arctic-Info news agency. Novatek has registered a subsidiary, Kolskaya Verf, in the Murmansk Region and is preparing design estimates.

The shipyard is to become operational in 2018 and is scheduled to build three floating LNG plants with a capacity of 6.5 million metric tons each by 2020. Novatek plans to use them within the framework of its LNG-2 Project off the Yamal Peninsula.

The idea was announced two years ago in Murmansk. Governor Marina Kovtun and Novatek CEO Leonid Mikhelson signed a cooperation agreement at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum this year. The agreement stipulates the construction of a shipyard for marine superstructures, the comprehensive development of a Murmansk transit hub, further development of the Murmansk Special Port Zone, and natural gas distribution in the region.