MOSCOW, August 15 (RIA Novosti) - Singapore hopes to receive supplies of Russian liquefied natural gas in the future, the country's trade and industry minister said Tuesday.

Lim Hng Kiang said after a meeting with Russian Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref that an LNG terminal would be built in his country by 2012.

"In this way, we hope to diversify gas supplies," he said. "Russia could become an LNG supplier to Singapore. We hope Singapore will become a good base for Russia's oil and gas companies."

Gref said Russia would soon complete the construction of a gas liquefying plant on the far-eastern island of Sakhalin and would start exploring the Shtokman deposit, which holds an estimated 3.2 trillion cubic meters of natural gas and 31 million metric tons of gas condensate in the northern Barents Sea.

Given Singapore's excellent transparent links, Gref said cooperation between the Asian country and Russian companies was "quite logical."