Gazprom discussed Shtokman progress with Total
In a meeting yesterday, Gazprom’s Aleksey and CEO of Total Christophe de Margerie expressed confidence with the work of their joint Shtokman Development Company. At the same time, the two company leaders expressed concern about the situation in the market.
The current oil prices do not reflect fair market price level and hampers the development of new projects, the two leader agreed, a press release from Gazprom reads.
Gazprom and Total are responsible for the development of the huge Shtokman gas project in the Barents Sea. The control respectively 51 and 25 percent of the Shtokman Development company. Third partner is StatoilHydro with a 24 percent stake.
The tight project deadline is now a growing concern for the joint venture. Gazprom has on numerous occasions underlined that the project will be in production from 2013 and that a project LNG plant will be up running from 2014. As BarentsObserver reported, those time schedules were also highlighted by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, when he this week met with his Norwegian counterpart Jens Stoltenberg.
In their meeting Miller and de Margerie discussed the implementation of the first Shtokman phase including a plan of actions for a period until the final investment decision is adopted early 2010.
