Gazprom gets access to Canada’s market

Gazprom has made its first large investment in North America, reserving all the capacity at the Rabaska LNG terminal in Canada.

The gas giant has signed a deal with Canada's Enbridge, Gaz Metro and Gaz de France for deliveries to the liquefied natural gas terminal in Quebec.

The $US 840 million terminal, due to open in 2014, will receive LNG from Russia's Shtokman field.

The Shtokman field in the Barents sea is one of Gazprom’s largest projects. Its estimated reserves are 3.8 trillion cubic metres of natural gas and 37 million tonnes of condensate.

Gazprom also says it boosted gas exports to Western Europe by a third in the first quarter of 2008. Deliveries rose to 35.4 billion cubic meters.

Gazprom's share of the domestic gas market also grew to 85% in that period.