The state-run Korea Trade Insurance Corporation, known as K-sure, said Wednesday it would join the Yamal liquefied natural gas project in Russia as a financial investor.

The decision was made after Russia’s second-largest gas producer Novatek, which owns an 80 percent stake in the $25 billion project, visited the export credit agency to ask for financing for the project.

K-sure said the amount of financing would be decided later after the project operator announced global engineering, production and construction companies to join projects.

”K-sure’s investments will be linked to participation of Korean companies,” a K-sure official said. Industry waters estimated Korean EPC companies would attract up to $5 trillion worth of contacts.

Yamal LNG project is a gas field development project on the Yamal Peninsula above the Arctic circle in Russia. France’s Total takes the remaining 20 percent stake in the project.

(jyseo@heraldcorp.com)