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Norwegian, US groups to win huge Shtokman gas project: report
AFP
MOSCOW
Petroleumworld.com 03 29 06Norwegian and US energy companies are set to win a bid to develop the vast Shtokman natural gas field off northern Russia alongside gas giant Gazprom, Russia's business daily Vedomosti reported Wednesday.
French group Total would be unsuccessful, the report forecast.
"The Norwegians will form an alliance. The Americans will do the same. These two consortiums will obviously be announced as the winner and will share 49.0 percent of the project equally," an official close to Gazprom's board of directors was quoted by Vedomosti as saying.
Gazprom would have the remaining 51.0 percent stake, Vedomosti said.
The Norwegian and US bids were favoured because Norway had experience of gas extraction in the Arctic region and US companies could help with selling liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Shtokman to the US market, Vedomosti reported.
The Russian gas giant declined to comment on the report and said that the successful bidders in the tender would be announced on April 15.
At the Troika Dialog investment house, energy analyst Valery Nesterov told Vedomosti that the choice of Norwegian and US companies would be "completely logical".
Norwegian companies Statoil and Hydro, Chevron and ConocoPhillips of the United States and French group Total have been scrambling for a share of the project, located about 560 kilometres (348 miles) north of Russia's Arctic coastline under the Barents Sea.
The field has proved reserves of 3,500 billion cubic metres of gas -- equivalent to more than seven times the annual gas consumption of the European Union in 2004.
Analysts see the project as a way for Russia to prove that it has the extraction and transport capacity to be a reliable energy supplier for Europe after gas delivery disruptions earlier this year sparked concern.
Russia has the world's biggest reserves and its natural gas deliveries account for about 25 percent of the European Union's consumption.
Total had been excluded from the project because of the "conflict around the Kharyaga oil field", Vedomosti said in its report under the headline: "Total Had Bad Luck -- It won't be allowed to exploit Shtokman."
Total fell out with the Russian government over a production-sharing agreement signed in 1995 for the Kharyaga field. Tax inspectors put pressure on the French company, which turned to the International Commercial Arbitration Court in Stockholm. The conflict was later resolved.
In an earlier interview with AFP, Total's senior vice president for Europe and Central Asia, Menno Grouvel, said that "out of the five participants, Total is the largest in terms of stock market capitalisation and we are recognised around the world as an established offshore operator".
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov was visiting Norway this week, including tours of Norwegian gas projects. Vedomosti said that the trip "practically predetermined the outcome of the tender."
Norway's offers of "marketing opportunities for gas supplies to the North American market, technology for gas extraction on the shelf and the possibility of participation in projects on the Norwegian shelf" had interested Gazprom, Lyudmila Valovaya, a government official, told Vedomosti.
Meanwhile, the Kommersant daily quoted Chevron Global Gas head John Gass on Wednesday as saying that the US company's involvement in Shtokman would turn Gazprom into a truly global energy player by giving it an outlet to the United States.
AFP 29 03 06 0858 GMTCopyright © 1994-2006 Agence France-Presse. All Rights Reserved.
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