Gazprom and Mitsui Enter New Cooperation on LNG Bunkering

Gazprom and Matsui have signed an Agreement of Strategic Cooperation.

Alexey Miller, Chairman of Gazprom's Management Committee, and Masami Iijima, Representative Director and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Mitsui & Co. Ltd. (Mitsui), have signed an Agreement of Strategic Cooperation, which will see the two companies collaborate in various areas, including Sakhalin II project expansion and liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering.

The agreement is noted to have been signed at a high-level working meeting in Japan between Gazprom and a number of Japanese companies, in which a number of other bilateral documents were signed.

"Gazprom continues to successfully cooperate with companies from the Asia-Pacific region, the world's fastest-growing gas market. As usual, Japanese companies are our main partners in the LNG sector," said Miller.

"The documents signed today give a much broader dimension to our joint efforts on LNG and create ample opportunities for collaboration in other areas of the gas industry."

Meeting participants are said to have expressed appreciation for Gazprom's partnership with Japanese companies in the gas sector, specifically in relation to LNG, noting that there is "great potential" for the expansion of collaboration between the companies.

In September, Ship & Bunker reported that Gazprom had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Mitsui to cooperate on feasibility and marketing studies related to LNG bunkering in Russia's Far East and the Asia-Pacific region.

In November, it was reported that Gazprom had held a working meeting between Miller and Iijima in order to discuss partnership prospects, with particular attention said to have been paid to the implementation of LNG bunkering plans.