ST PETERSBURG, May 24 (Reuters) - Gennady Timchenko, a major shareholder in Russia's Novatek, a partner in the Yamal Liquefied Natural Gas project, said on Saturday that the project's financing may be settled in the rouble and the Chinese yuan.

Novatek, Russia's second-largest gas producer, is developing the $27 billion Yamal LNG project with France's Total and China's CNPC. The first production unit, with annual capacity of 5.5 million tonnes, is due to be launched in 2017.

"We're now borrowing money (for the Yamal LNG), based on dollars, and what will we refinance in? I think in the yuan and the rouble," Timchenko told journalists on the sidelines of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum.

He also said that his investment vehicle, Volga Group, will invest in China's LNG storage and pipeline assets.

(Reporting by Denis Pinchuk; Writing by Lidia Kelly, editing by Jason Bush)