Putin offers Japanese companies stakes in gas fields

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Sunday offered Japanese companies stakes in two major Siberian gas fields which hold total reserves of about 3.2 trillion cubic metres. Putin, visiting Sakhalin island where Russia's has its only liquefied natural gas terminal, said Russia was ready to increase pipeline gas deliveries to Europe to allow LNG cargoes to be diverted to Japan.
"We will increase deliveries of pipeline gas to Europe while LNG tankers destined for Europe (can) turn around and head for Japan instead," Putin told a meeting in the Far Eastern city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk 1,000 km (600 miles) north of the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, Putin said Gazprom was ready to increase gas deliveries to Europe by 60 billion cubic metres, the equivalent of about 40 million tonnes of LNG, so that additional LNG could be diverted to Japan.