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Shtokman plans not linked to political disputes with US: official
AFP
SOCHI, Russia
Petroleumworld.com 09 28 06
Russia's top energy official strongly denied Wednesday that plans for the massive Shtokman gas project were tied to political or commercial disputes with the United States.
Attributing political motives to Russia's plans for the huge Barents Sea gas field are "counterproductive and give people a good basis to fill newspaper pages, but have little relationship to life," Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko said.
President Vladimir Putin said this weekend that some Shtokman gas may go to Europe rather than the United States, sparking widespread speculation that the project was being used as a lever in strained Russian-US relations.
"There's no need to link anything with anything else: Shtokman to WTO, WTO to airplanes, or airplanes to Iran," Khristenko told journalists here, referring to recent political and commercial disputes between the two countries.
The United States is currently holding up Russia's bid to join the World Trade Organization, which Kremlin officials have previously hinted could prevent US companies from partnering in Shtokman.
Khristenko said the list of five companies short-listed to develop Shtokman with state gas monopoly Gazprom "had not changed," effectively denying reports that Germany's E.ON had joined the list.
Short-listed are US majors Chevron and ConocoPhilips, France's Total, and Norwegian companies Statoil and Norsk Hydro.
AFP 27 1517 GMT 09 06
Copyright ©2006 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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