Novatek and its partners in the Arctic LNG 2 project have amended a loan agreement signed with a syndicate of Russian banks earlier this year.
The deal revealed in April this year included a loan for a total amount of 3.11 billion euros ($3.61 billion).
Novatek said in a statement on Monday the partners signed an amendment to this loan in order to increase the maximum financing amount under the 15-year credit line facility to 5.7 billion euros ($6.62 billion).
Also, the banks include Sberbank, Gazprombank and its subsidiary Bank GPB International, state development corporation VEB.RF but also Bank Otkritie Financial Corporation.
The new loan is part of the external financing package for the Arctic LNG 2 project.
“The final amount of financing from the Russian banks within the maximum amount of up to 5.7 billion euros will be determined once the international part of the project’s external financing is finalized,” Novatek said.
Novatek has previously said the project’s partners were working to complete about $11 billion in external financing for the project that will cost around $21.3 billion in total.
Located on the Gydan peninsula, Arctic LNG 2 includes the construction of three trains with a capacity of 6.6 mtpa, each, using gravity-based structure platforms.
Novatek recently welcomed the project’s first modules from China. It expects to launch the project’s first LNG train in 2023, with trains 2 and 3 to follow in 2024 and 2025, respectively.
Besides operator Novatek, the project partners include TotalEnergies, CNPC, CNOOC, and the consortium of Mitsui and JOGMEC.