Kuwait has plans to purchase up to 1.5m metric tons of LNG from Russia on an annual basis, according to Deputy Managing Director of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), Nasser Abdullah Saleh.
Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom said that it would not be in accordance with Russia's national interest to allow Novatek and Rosneft to export gas to Europe.
Russia's biggest independent natural gas producer Novatek has raised its net profit attributable to shareholders by more than 44% to $1.9 billion in 2011 from 2010's $1.31 billion.
OAO Novatek, Russia's second-biggest gas producer, will decide on further exploration at its development in Egypt in September after writing off some wells, Chief Financial Officer Mark Gyetvay said.