Foreign companies will be able to participate in Russian energy giant Gazprom's ambitious Shtokman project off Russia's Arctic coast, the Russian industry and energy minister said Friday.
Viktor Khristenko said Gazprom announced in October it would proceed with the development of the natural gas deposit on its own because foreign companies had failed to make "satisfactory proposals on assets."
He said Gazprom might involve foreign companies in the project, but not on the conditions initially proposed.
Gazprom's announcement that it would develop the Shtokman deposit on its own, was a move that stunned Norway's Statoil and Norsk Hydro, France's Total, and U.S. giants Chevron and ConocoPhillips, all companies previously on a short-list of contenders for the project.
The offshore deposit is the only source of natural gas for the ambitious Nord Stream gas pipeline that will soon link Russia to Germany along the Baltic seabed.
Gazprom controls a project to develop the giant Shtokman field, which holds an estimated 3.2 trillion cubic meters of natural gas and 31 million metric tons of gas condensate in the Barents Sea, and plans to build an LNG plant there.
Some $12-14 billion will be invested in the project's first phase, and production will start in 2011. |
