Russia considers granting the exclusive right to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) to operators of subsoil areas located north of 67 degrees north latitude.

“The new legislation will stimulate production of 45 million metric tons of LNG in addition to some 30 million tons produced at this stage,” Chair of the State Duma Energy Committee Pavel Zavalny said, adding that Russia expects to increase LNG production to 140 million tons per year by 2035.

The bill grants the exclusive right to export LNG to companies developing onshore areas wholly or partially located north of 67 degrees north latitude. This includes gas fields located in part of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, in the Nenets and Yamalo-Nenets autonomous areas. In addition, the current list of authorized LNG exporters will remain unchanged.

With these developments located at a considerable distance from Russia’s unified gas supply system infrastructure, the gas extracted can only be efficiently monetized through liquefaction, the explanatory note to the bill says.

According to the sponsors of the initiative, this will enable the monetization of significant gas reserves located too far from Gazprom’s unified system and create better conditions for increasing LNG production and export.

Earlier, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said that expanding the list of authorized LNG exporters would help boost Russia’s annual production to 100 million tons in seven years and provide for a more efficient use of the capacity of Arctic routes for shipping LNG to countries in the Asia-Pacific region.