Russia's Gazprom and South Korea's Kogas, which are negotiating for Russian gas via a new proposed pipeline, plan to hold the next round of talks in March, Gazprom said late Monday. They are looking at speeding up the deal, the Russian gas giant added.
Gazprom and Kogas are discussing possible supply of up to 12 billion cubic meters/year of Russian gas to South Korea through a pipeline that will go through North Korea, with startup tentatively scheduled for 2017.
At Monday's talks between Gazprom's Deputy CEO Alexander Medvedev and Kogas Executive Vice-President Park Yong Sung in Seoul, the parties "presented their updated offers on the basic terms of the pipeline contract and bridged some of the gaps in their approach to the number of important project parameters," Gazprom said, providing no figures however.
"Both sides emphasized their interest in implementing the project and highlighted the importance of coming to a prompt agreement to effectively put on stream Russian natural gas supplies to South Korea," it said.
Gazprom and Kogas first agreed to a 30-year supply of up to 10 Bcm/year of Russian gas in 2008, with startup marked for 2015. Talks, however, stalled over North Korea's controversial nuclear program.
Both Gazprom and Kogas see a pipeline that runs across North Korea as the preferred delivery option. The two companies also considered LNG supplies or construction of an underwater pipeline to bypass North Korea.
In November 2010, Gazprom and Kogas agreed to begin commercial talks on the deal, with start of delivery rescheduled for 2017.
Talks intensified in August 2011 when then North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il visited Russia to meet President Dmitry Medvedev. Following the meeting, Medvedev said Pyongyang was interested in the project, and expected to receive about $100 million/year in transit fee from the pipeline.
In September 2011, Gazprom and Kogas signed a road map for implementation of the gas pipeline project.
At the time, Medvedev said future gas supplies could be increased to 12 Bcm/year.
Following the death of North Korea's Kim Jong-Il in December, the new administration said it would continue with the project, Russia's Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said in January.
Kogas currently imports 1.5 million mt/year of LNG from Russia's Gazprom-led Sakhalin 2 project under a 20-year contract that began in 2009.
