The Arctic LNG 2 gas megaproject, much contested by environmental protection associations, will ultimately be carried out without public guarantee from the French state. The information was confirmed at World from government source, Wednesday 1er December. The Russian company Novatek, the main promoter of the project with the French group TotalEnergies (21.6% direct or indirect participation), had announced the day before that it had obtained nearly ten billion euros in financing from Russian and international banks.
The gigantic liquefaction plant already under construction in the Russian Arctic, an area severely affected by climate change, is expected to produce nearly twenty million tonnes of gas per year, intended for Europe and Europe. ‘Asia. France had initially considered supporting this project through export guarantees. Thanks to this mechanism, the country guarantees loans for French companies through the public investment bank, Bpifrance. In all discretion, and in particular because of pressure from NGOs, she finally gave up.
According to a source familiar with the matter, Bpifrance did not respond to the loan request formulated by the French company Technip, also a stakeholder in the project. While TotalEnergies’ first gas project in the Arctic, Yamal LNG, commissioned since 2017 with Novatek, had benefited from French public guarantees, neither the multinational nor Technip wished to comment on the fact that Paris does not grants no export guarantee to Arctic LNG 2, whose activity is to begin in 2023. According to Technip, this project “ is important for replacing coal with natural gas, especially in Asian countries where energy needs are very high and thus accelerate the energy transition ”.
The gigantic Arctic LNG 2 project is estimated by Novatek at a total cost of around 19 billion euros
Despite this lack of French support, Novatek said on Tuesday it had raised 9.5 billion euros in the form of loans “For a period of up to 15 years”. This sum includes in particular 2.5 billion euros from China, such as its Development Bank and its Export and Import Bank. Another $ 2.5 billion will come from financial institutions of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), notably Japan, or Italy through the Italian export credit agency. Finally, most of the loans (4.5 billion euros) will be based on Russian banks.
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