Russia to handle LNG venture aloneBy UPIOct 9, 2006, 19:00 GMT
MOSCOW, Russia (UPI) -- Russia`s OAO Gazprom Monday said it would alone develop a massive natural gas field in the Barents Sea.
The company`s chief executive surprised the world`s energy industry Monday by announcing that none of the potential Western partners it had been considering would partner in the Shtokman gas field development, Novosti reported. He also said production would be sold in Europe, not as liquid natural gas in the United States, as had been expected.
Alexei Miller said Gazprom had failed to find partners able to propose acceptable conditions for the development of the deposit, which will be the sole source of natural gas for the North European Gas Pipeline leading from Russia to Germany across the floor of the Baltic Sea.
'Gazprom was considering giving 49 percent in the Shtokman project to foreign companies for a long time,' Gazprom said. 'But foreign companies failed to offer assets commensurate with the volume and quality of the Shtokman deposit`s reserves.'
The short list of potential partners had been Norway`s Statoil and Norsk Hydro, France`s Total and U.S. giants Chevron and ConocoPhillips.
Copyright 2006 by United Press International