ST. PETERSBURG, April 12 (RIA Novosti) - Canadian oil and gas company Petro-Canada held talks with Leningrad Region officials Wednesday over construction of a liquefied natural gas plant near St. Petersburg.

"A decision to start construction the Leningrad Region could be adopted by the end of 2006," the regional government's press service said.

The Canadian company said it is looking at two construction sites in the region in north-west Russia, and plans to invest more than $1.5 billion in the project.

Petro-Canada and Gazprom signed an agreement on initial engineering design of an LNG plant near Russia's second city during a March 13-15 visit to Canada by the Russian energy giant's CEO, Alexei Miller.

LNG from the plant would be supplied to Petro-Canada's proposed LNG re-gasification facility in Gros-Cacouna, Quebec. Gas from this terminal would be trans-shipped to markets in Quebec and Ontario.

Canada is the world's third largest producer of natural gas (183.6 million cu m in 2004) after the United States and Russia, and second largest exporter after Russia (102.1 billion cu m).