World Bulletin / News Desk

Russia's Gazprom and Royal Dutch Shell have started commercial talks on Baltic LNG project, Interfax news agency quoted Gazprom Chief Executive Alexei Miller as saying on Monday in Reuters

The Russian gas producer plans to build a liquefied natural gas plant in the Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga with an annual capacity of 10 million tonnes. It wants to increase output to 15 million tonnes a year later on.

Russia's Kommersant newspaper said in June that Gazprom may offer up to 49 percent in the project to a strategic partner, with most likely candidates being Shell or a consortium of Japanese firms.