14 DAY TRIAL // News from Russia informs us that, as a result of Europe's gradually letting go of its dependence on foreign gas, President Putin saw fit to secure his country's economic stability by asking that oil and gas company Gazprom improve on its diplomatic and business relations with Japan and China.
To cut a long story short, rather than keep sending gas to Europe, Gazprom is to begin selling it to the aforementioned two countries.
As was to be expected, this decision will translate in significant investments being made in developing the infrastructure, which will allow for natural gas to be sent all the way to the Asia-Pacific region.
Oil Price informs us that Gazprom agreed to spend as much as $24.5 billion (€18.97 billion) on building a pipeline stretching from the East Siberian Chayanda natural gas field all the way to the Pacific port of Vladivostok.
Once completed, this gas pipeline will measure 3,200 km (about 1,990 miles) in length.
Moreover, $13.5 billion (€10.45 billion) will also be invested in developing the East Siberian gas field itself, which supposedly holds as much as 1.3 trillion cubic meters of gas.
According to the same source, a collaboration between Gazprom and several Japanese energy companies will lead to Vladivostok's witnessing the construction of a LNG plant [liquefied natural gas], which will supposedly be up and running as early as the year 2020.
Apparently, this LNG plant will produce somewhere between 10-20 million tonnes of this energy resource on a yearly basis, and most – if not all – of it will be sent to China and Japan.
Should things go as planned, it is Vladimir Putin's hope that Russia will succeed in creating “another exporting center oriented to Asia-Pacific region.”
While Gazprom is busy developing its LNG industry on land, Shell is investing in the construction of the world's first floating LNG plant, which is expected to become operational in 2017.