Shtokman costs will be ready in October
The estimated price tag of development of the giant Shtokman gas field in the Barents Sea will be presented to the investors in October. A final investment decision is expected in December.
Despite the situation on the world market, development of the Shtokman field is justified, says Head of the Department for Structural Analysis in Shtokman Development AG (ShDAG) Timur Saberzanov according to RIA Novosti.
Earlier this month Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin 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, BarentsObserver reported.
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 some $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.
