Russia May Redirect LNG Supplies To Japan

Russia is considering redirecting supplies of liquified natural gas to Japan from other export destinations as relief following the weekend's earthquake in the region, the operator of Russia's LNG plant on the Pacific coast said Monday.

"We are now considering redirecting LNG to Japan," said a spokesman from Sakhalin Energy, which runs the Sakhalin-2 LNG plant. "This will depend on the Japanese customers' ability to receive the extra cargoes."

He declined to say what volumes and from which destinations the LNG volumes could come.

The spokesman added that the Sakhalin-2 plant hasn't been affected by the tsunami that hit Japan at the weekend.

Sakhalin Energy is controlled by Russian state gas firm OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS) with Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA) and Japan's Mitsui & Co. (8031.TO) and Mitsubishi Corp. (8058.TO) as minority partners.

-By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]