Putin sets schedule for Shtokman
Gazprom must make a final investment decision on the Shtokman project within the end of the year, says Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
The first gas will be produced at the Shtokman field in the fourth quarter of 2016, Putin said at a meeting in the ruling United Russia party on Monday.
According to the prime minister, the delays on the project are a result of conditions on the gas market: - Of course, Gazprom had to curb work on the Shtokman in connection with falling demand and prices, but we are not giving up on this project, he said, according to Kommersant.
Putin underlined that the first phase of the project – a pipeline from the field to the shore – will be in place by the end of 2016, and the second phase – production of LNG – will start in 2017.
The partners in the Shtokman project - Norway’s Statoil, France’s Total and Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom - have delayed pipeline gas production from Shtokman until 2016 instead of the originally planned 2013.
Shtokman, located in the stormy Barents Sea and one of the world’s largest gas fields, is expected to require $15 billion of investment in its first phase alone.
The field, which contains 3.9 trillion cubic metres of gas and 56 million tonnes of condensate, is 550 km offshore at a depth of 340 metres, was discovered by the Soviet Union in 1988 and its start-up has been repeatedly delayed due to problems with financing and the lack of transport infrastructure in place.
