Shtokman discussions in Moscow
As the announced deadline for the final investment decision is approaching, the leaders of three Shtokman partners Gazprom, Total and Statoil meet in Moscow.
The three company leaders, Aleksey Miller, Christophe de Margerie and Helge Lund on Friday met to “discuss questions of interaction in the preparation to the first development phase of the Shtokman project”, a press release from Gazprom reads.
However, Friday’s discussions must have been of the special kind. The three companies are now under major pressure to deliver a final investment decision in the course of December, the deadline on several occasions announced by the parts.
As previously reported by BarentsObserver, the estimated price tag of development of the giant Shtokman gas field in the Barents Sea will be presented to the investors in October, while the final investment decision is expected in December.
Read also: Shtokman costs will be ready in October
This deadline might now be broken and the Shtokman project subsequently face another delay. That was indicated by Statoil leader Helge Lund in an interview with Reuters last week. According to the company leader, Russian authorities must now quickly approve tax breaks for the project. If not, the December deadline might not be met, he said, Upstreamonline.com reports.
“We’re into an important phase. It has to be solved in the next few months actually,” Lund told the news wire in an interview last Tuesday.
Also politicians on the highest level exercise increasing pressure on the Shtokman partners. Last month, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin himself urged Gazprom to have the final investment decision ready by December, so that first gas will be produced at the Shtokman field in the fourth quarter of 2016.
Read also: Putin sets schedule for Shtokman
Progress in the Shtokman project is much anticipated by both the industry and the politicians. However, hardly anyone will be surprised if the project deadline is not met. From before, the project has experienced numerous delays and postponements. After all, Gazprom for years stressed that the project would be in production from year 2013. Now the schedule is 2016.
With another postponement of the final investment decision, also that data might soon prove too ambitious
