Novatek : Fourth partner for Arctic LNG-2 project likely to be from Asia - Novatek

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The final partner for Novatek's new liquefied natural gas project, Arctic LNG-2, is likely to be an Asia Pacific customer, with a deal due in days, a senior official at the Russian gas producer said on Wednesday.

"It will be most likely (from) Asia ... the Asia Pacific market or customers in Asia Pacific market have been interested in our project," Mark Gyetvay, Novatek's chief financial officer told reporters on the sidelines of an LNG conference.

The agreement with a fourth partner on the 19.8 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) Arctic LNG-2 project is expected to be signed by the end of June, he added.

Novatek's other partners on the project include France's Total, China's CNOOC and China National Oil and Gas Exploration and Development Co (CNODC), a unit of China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC).

Each project holder will take its share of equity as LNG supply, Gyetvay said. Given each project partner will have 10 percent equity in the project, this translates to about 1.98 mtpa of supply for each partner, he said.

Novatek is on track to make a final investment decision on Arctic LNG-2 in the third quarter of this year, he said.

The project to liquefy and export natural gas aims to develop more than 7 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) of resources.

(Reporting by Jessica Jaganathan; editing by Richard Pullin)