MOSCOW, July 18. /TASS/. Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev approved plans to build Novatek’s marine LNG transshipment complex in the Murmansk Region. The new terminal’s capacity would be more than 20 million tonnes a year. The document is posted on the official portal of legal information.

Construction of the marine transshipment complex for liquefied natural gas in the Murmansk Region is one of the projects to transship LNG at Russian marine ports along the Northern Sea Route.

Novatek plans to build two terminals in Murmansk and on Kamchatka to cut transport expenses from its LNG projects, including the working Yamal LNG and the future Arctic LNG-2 projects. Gas will be delivered to the terminals by ice-class tankers along the Northern Sea Route, where it will be transshipped onto regular gas carriers. Novatek and Rosmorrechflot (sea and river transport authority) expect a license for construction in the Murmansk Region to be issued in the second quarter of 2020, and the construction is planned for 2020-2023.

In December, 2018, at a meeting in Sabetta, Russia’s Minister of Transport Evgeny Ditrikh asked Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to order the Finance Ministry to provide funding sources for the construction of marine LNG transshipment complexes in the Murmansk Region and on Kamchatka. The minister estimated construction in the Murmansk Region at 70.1 billion rubles ($1.1 billion), and the capacity — at 20.9 million tonnes a year. Construction of the terminal on Kamchatka would cost 100.2 billion rubles ($1.6 billion), the capacity would make 21.7 million tonnes a year.