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Norwegian oil giants woo Russians for Barents Sea reserves
By Pierre Henry-Deshayes
AFP
OSLO
Petroleumworld.com 03 29 06Norwegian oil giants Norsk Hydro and Statoil launched a charm offensive Tuesday to secure access to vast Russian gas reserves during the visit of Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov to Norway.
In the face of stiff competition from US groups ConocoPhillips and Chevron Texaco and Total of France, and just days before the selection of foreign partners for the development of the huge Shtokman gas field in the Barents Sea, Norsk Hydro said it was considering constructing an aluminium factory in Russia.
The plant, which would represent an investment of at least one billion dollars in what could be seen as a sweetener, would "be run on gas from the Barents Sea," said the group chief executive Eivind Reiten.
Norsk Hydro, the world's third largest aluminium company, is to discuss the construction of the aluminium factory with Yury Evdokimov, governor of Murmansk this week.
Reiten announced the project during Fradkov's two-day visit to Norway.
Fradkov began his trip to Norway with a visit to Norsk Hydro's Aukra facility which is being built on the country's west coast to treat natural gas from the Ormen Lange offshore field, currently under development.
"Have a good look around you, after all, this is what we're bringing with us as we turn our attention to the arctic areas of Russia," Reiten said, referring to the company's know-how.
Norsk Hydro, Statoil, Total, ConocoPhillips and Chevron Texaco have been all pre-selected by Russia's semi-public energy supplier Gazprom to compete for a chance to develop the Shtokman field.
Gazprom is due to announce by April 15 its choice of two or three foreign partners who will take a 49 percent stake in the field.
With reserves estimated at 3.5 billion cubic metres, Shtokman promises to be one of the largest gas fields in the world.
Norsk Hydro said Ormen Lange demonstrated their expertise in the development of deep water fields and stressed that the project was on time and on budget.
Meanwhile, Statoil's chief executive, Helge Lund, who was also in Aukra, said that the development of the Snoehvit (Snow White) field, in the Norwegian waters of the Barents Sea, was as challenging as the Shtokman field.
"Our joint knowledge and experience will be crucial if we are to tackle the challenges in tough, Arctic seas," said Lund, who showed Fradkov a video presentation about Snoehvit.
Statoil's proposal to Gazprom involves exchanging a share of Snoehvit for a share of Shtokman and giving the Russian company access to the US liquified gas market.
The development of Snoehvit has so far incurred unforeseen extra costs of at least 2.4 billion euros as well as delays
AFP 28 03 06 2203 GMTCopyright © 1994-2006 Agence France-Presse. All Rights Reserved.
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