VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (Reuters) - French export credit agencies will not help finance Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 project, as previously expected, but it will get the funds needed this year, Leonid Mikhelson, head of the project’s major shareholder Novatek, said on Friday. Shareholders in Russia’s Novatek earlier this year approved external financing of $11 billion for the Arctic LNG 2 project, which is expected to start production of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in 2023. A document seen by Reuters last year said that included $700 million from French credit agency Bpifrance. Mikhelson also said Russia-made equipment designed for the fourth line of the existing Yamal LNG plant was not working properly due to technological failures.