Japan, Russia agree to build gas plant

TOKYO, July 10 (AFP) - Japan and Russia have agreed to jointly build a liquefied natural gas plant in Vladivostok, with five million tonnes of output to be shipped to Japan annually, a newspaper said Saturday.

An official accord will be signed in November when Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visits Japan to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo, the business daily Nikkei said.

The new facility, expected to begin output as soon as 2017, will liquefy natural gas delivered by pipeline from eastern Russia, the newspaper said.

The Japanese trade and industry ministry as well as Japanese companies such as Itochu Corp. and Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. will be engaged in the construction, it said.

“Negotiations are progressing smoothly,” Gazprom Deputy Chairman Alexander Medvedev told The Nikkei in an interview Friday.

Japan is the world’s biggest importer of LNG, it added.