Saipem is in talks to end two contracts related to Russia's $21-billion Arctic LNG 2 project led by Moscow-listed gas producer Novatek NVTK.MM, the Italian energy services group said in its interim financial statement.
Saipem said its backlog in Russia amounted to approximately 1.4 billion euros ($1.43 billion) and consisted only of these two projects related to the building of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in the Arctic.
Saipem entered one of these contracts in joint-venture with Turkey's Ronesans and the second with France's Technip.
Technip said at the end of July it was seeking an "orderly exit" from the Arctic LNG 2 project. Read full story
Before the Ukraine conflict, Arctic LNG 2 was expected to be launched in 2023 and reach full production capacity of almost 20 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas a year in 2026.
The chief executive of Novatek said in June the company aimed to start the first line of its Arctic LNG 2 project in 2023.
Russia has increased pressure on investors in its two Pacific energy projects which once helped Moscow rebuild its economy, blaming ExxonMobil for falling oil output at Sakhalin-1 and giving shareholders of Sakhalin-2 a month to claim their stakes.
($1 = 0.9809 euros)
(Reuters - Reporting by Francesca Landini; editing by David Evans)
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