Gazprom unit delivers CO2 rights to Mitsubishi
*Project at Gazprom Neft delivers 290,000 T of CO2 rights
*Project set to generate total 3.1 mln T of CO2 rights
*Mitsubishi won't say who its customers will be
TOKYO, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Mitsubishi Corp (8058.T) is receiving 290,000 tonnes of CO2 emission rights from a project in Siberia, one of the first such credit deliveries from Russia.
Rights to notional CO2 offsets are used to help rich countries meet their goals under the Kyoto Protocol.
Mitsubishi said on Friday the offsets, estimated to be worth about 3.3 million euros ($4 million), were generated from a project organised by it and JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp (5020.T) to utilise associated gas at Gazprom Neft's (SIBN.MM) Ety-Purovskoye field in northern Siberia. [ID:nLDE6731MH]
JX Nippon, Japan's top refiner, is providing technology to collect and use associated gas from the oil field that was previously burned off, and Mitsubishi is selling the emission rights, a Mitsubishi spokesman said.
Mitsubishi Corp, Japan's biggest trading firm, declined to comment on who its customers would be for the first tranche of a total of an estimated 3.1 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent from the project by 2012.
Under Kyoto's Joint Implementation deal, companies can invest in carbon-cutting projects in Kyoto signatory countries, and in return receive offsets called Emissions Reduction Units (ERUs), which can be used towards emissions targets or sold for profit.
Spot ERUs currently trade at around 11.49 euros a tonne, a broker in Tokyo said, almost flat with certified emissions reductions (CERs), the other popular type of Kyoto emissions rights generated from projects in developing countries.
Russia gave a green light in July to 15 clean energy projects to earn ERUs for the first time, lagging Eastern European countries that have been aggressively selling their surplus emissions rights to other developed countries. [ID:nLDE66P15S]
Media company Point Carbon, a unit of Thomson Reuters, reported last month that Russia had issued its first EURs amounting to 4.2 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent. ($1=.7689 euro) (Reporting by Risa Maeda; Editing by Michael Watson)
