Russia’s natural gas producer Novatek is offering liquefied natural gas to potential Chinese customers through a new marketing team, although it’s uncertain whether the Russian company would attract many clients with attractive prices, Chinese traders told Reuters on Wednesday. Novatek is now offering part of an LNG cargo from its majority-owned Yamal project in the Arctic. The cargo is set to arrive in China later in July, the China-based trading sources told Reuters.
Novatek, which is the biggest LNG producer and exporter in Russia, has been working to set up a marketing and business development team based in China for months, according to multiple undisclosed sources who spoke to Reuters in February. Unlike the Yamal project which sells LNG cargoes to Asia and even to Europe, Novatek’s new Arctic LNG 2 project has been basically on ice since the U.S. imposed in November fresh sanctions on the Russian project.