(Yicai Global) April 26 -- Novatek, Russia's second-largest natural gas producer, is selling half of its quota reserved for foreign buyers in its new liquefied natural gas project, Arctic LNG 2, to two Chinese state-owned buyers.

China National Offshore Oil as well as China National Oil and Gas Exploration and Development, a unit of China National Petroleum, signed a framework agreement with Novatek, under which each of them will buy a 10 percent stake in Arctic LNG 2, the Beijing-based firms announced separately. Novatek will sell 40 percent of the project's equity and retain the rest. France's Total has chipped in to buy 10 percent.

Arctic LNG 2 project is located in northern Russia's Gydan Peninsula and is the Tarko-Sale-based firm's second project in the polar region. The plant will have three pipelines with an estimated total capacity of 19.8 million tons of LNG a year, equalling 535,000 barrels of petroleum a day. The first production line is expected to be opened in 2023.

China is the second-largest LNG buyer worldwide, tailing Japan. China imported over 53 million tons of LNG last year, hitting a record high, public data show.

Editor: Emmi Laine