KIEV, November 26 (RIA Novosti) – Kiev signed a deal on Monday creating a consortium of investors for a liquid natural gas terminal, including America’s Excelerate Energy and Spain’s Gas Natural Fenosa, Ukraine’s national projects agency said.
Ukraine wants to build a terminal with a capacity of 10 billion cubic meters of LNG a year, in a bid to diversify supply away from reliance on Russian gas imports which Ukraine considers excessively expensive.
The agreement will create “a consortium of investors in the LNG Terminal national consortium and intallation of mobile floating platforms for docking of LNG tankers near the Yuzhny port in Odessa region,” Ukraine’s national projects agency said.
The agreement was signed by Vladislav Kasykiv for Ukraine’s state agency for national projects investment and the President of Excelerate Energy Edward Scott and Gas Natural Fenosa’s Managing Director for External Relations Jordi Garcia Tabernero.
A ceremony was held at the same time as the signing to mark the start of construction of a pipeline to the terminal, which will be linked to Ukraine’s gas transport system. The pipeline will be built by Ukraine’s Ukrtransneftgas, a subsidiary of national energy company Naftogaz.
The consortium will build a plant on the shores of the Black Sea for regasification of LNG. Investment in the project, which was approved in August 2010, will reach 856 million euro. The technical basis for the project was completed by Fenosa subsidiary Socoin in early 2012.
The Ukrainian state will hold 25 percent in the terminal project, and the remainder will be owned by private companies. The terminal is due to start working at a capacity of 5 billion cubic meters a year by 2016.
Spain’s Enagas and Excelerate Energy will supply the handling equipment for the terminal, Kommersant Ukraina reported previously.