Possible Shtokman Decision
Quoting a “source close to the Gazprom board of directors,” two media outlets, Greenwire and the Turkish Press, are reporting that Gazprom has determined that two consortiums will be formed to develop the huge Shtokman field reserves. One consortium will be American and will be comprised of Chevron and ConocoPhillips and the other will be a Norwegian consortium including Statoil ASA and Norsk Hydro. Together they will share 49% of the $20 billion project. Development of the field, which is estimated to hold 3,500 billion cubic meters of gas, roughly equal to seven times the annual consumption of the EU, is expected to commence in 2010 and last for 40 years. A Russian government official noted that Norway’s offers of “marketing opportunities for gas supplies to the North American market” were beneficial to the Norwegian position. A report from UPI indicates that Gazprom has rejected a bid by France’s Total, the other company short-listed for the Shtokman project. [The UPI article is no longer available online.]