Two state-owned Chinese energy giants have each taken 10 percent stakes in Russian Novatek's liquified natural gas (LNG) projects, the second largest gas company in Russia said Thursday. The China National Oil and Gas Exploration and Development Corporation (CNODC) signed an agreement to acquire the stake in Novatek's Arctic LNG 2, the privately owned Russian company said in a statement.
CNODC is part of the state-run China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).
Novatek also announced that the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) had taken a stake of the same size in the $20-billion project.
In two press releases, Novatek boss Leonid Mikhelson first praised "the continuation of fruitful cooperation with CNPC" and then the "new partner" CNOOC, "because China is one of the main consumer markets for our sales of liquefied natural gas".
The agreements were signed in Beijing during the New Silk Roads Summit. French company Total is also a 10 percent partner in the Arctic LNG 2 project, which extracts gas from northern Siberia.
Also on Thursday, Novatek announced its net profit had increased nine-fold in the first quarter on 2019, on the back of Arctic LNG 2 and other arctic megaproject Yamal LNG. The net profit of the group was 381.8 billion rubles (5.3 billion euros, $5.9 billion), an increase of 786 percent year-on-year, according to Novatek figures.