OREANDA-NEWS  Russian Consul General in Sapporo Sergey Marin said that Japan has not withdrawn from Novatek's Arctic LNG 2 project. He said this in an interview with RIA Novosti.

Marin said that Japan will increase Russian gas supplies through Arctic LNG 2 by 2 million tons per year. If the plans can be implemented, it will happen by 2026. He recalled that the consortium is part of Mitsui & Co and the Japanese national oil and metals company JOGMEC retained a 10 percent stake in Arctic LNG 2. However, as it became known, Tokyo has frozen new investments in the project since March 2022 due to financial sanctions.

"The project is working, but has not yet started LNG production, the first line should be launched by the end of this year, and the second and third — in 2024 and 2026. If everything goes according to plan, Japan will add about 2 million tons of LNG per year to the share it currently receives from Russia, that is, about 9 percent of total imports," the Consul General concluded.

In April, Japan stopped observing the oil price ceiling. She achieved an exception from the ceiling of prices for Russian oil at $ 60 per barrel, agreed by the countries of the "Big Seven" (G7).