Russian independent gas producer Novatek has secured up to US$19bn of financing from Russian and international financial institutions for its US$27bn Yamal LNG project in the prolific Yamal-Nenets autonomous region of Russia. In May 2016, the company announced that it had secured US$12.1bn in loans from Chinese state-run banks. The loans were approved by the Export-Import Bank of China ($10.6bn) and the China Development Bank (US$1.51bn). The project also received around US$2.3bn (Rub150bn) from Russia National Wealth Fund in 2015 and signed loans worth US$4.1bn with Russia's Sberbank and Gazprombank in 2016.
Yamal LNG is the main shareholder of the 16.5 Mt/yr Yamal LNG liquefaction terminal project, with a 50.1% stake, along with CNPC (20%), Total (20%), and Silk Road Fund (9.9%). The LNG project will consist of three 5.5 Mt/year trains; the first 5.5 Mt/yr LNG train is expected to be commissioned in late 2017 (65% completed), the second in 2018 and the third in 2019.