Russ Oil-Gas

June 16, 2008 - Kommersant - Sakhalin Energy, Japan’s JBIC and an international consortium of commercial banks have agreed in Tokyo on the project funding of the second stage of Sakhalin-2, Sakhalin Energy announced. Under the agreement, JBIC will loan $3.7 billion to Sakhalin Energy and another $1.6 billion to the consortium of Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd, Sumitomo Mitsui Bank Corp and BNP Paribas. The money will go to fund the final stage of construction, testing and putting into operation the infrastructure of Sakhalin-2 second stage. The amount is the record in Russia raised for project funding. Sakhalin-2 project, which budget is estimated at roughly $20 billion, provides for development of Piltun-Astokhskoe and Lunskoe fields with the aggregate recoverable reserves of 150 million tons of crude oil and 500 billion cu meters of gas. The natural gas from Sakhalin will go to energy companies of Japan, Korea and the United States. The current holders of Sakhalin Energy are Gazprom (50 percent + 1 stock), Royal Dutch Shell (27.5 percent), Mitsui (12.5 percent) and Mitsubishi (10 percent).