New Shtokman tenders in the pipeline
With five years left to production startup, nothing has been done in Teriberka, the main hub for the Shtokman project development. The Shtokman Development AG now announces a number of new project tenders, and still maintains that the project is on schedule.
As BarentsObserver has reported, the Shtokman Development in April posted several project tenders on its website with deadlines of 25 May. Now, the company’s head of supplier surveys Andrei Plis confirms that several more tenders are in the pipeline, the Moscow Times reports.
The Shtokman developers are in a big hurry. The company is soon running out of time if it is to meet the project deadlines on several occasions proclaimed both by the company leadership as well as Gazprom representatives. The project’s LNG plant is to be up running in 2014, while the first gas is to be pipelined away from the area already in 2013.
Meanwhile, there are no signs whatsoever of the grand project in Teriberka, the fishing village which is to be turned into the hub for the gas project. In a meeting with a Norwegian journalist this week, mayor of Teriberka Valery Yarantsev expressed major doubt about project progress.
The Shtokman Development AG maintains that the bidding for the project will be finish by the end of the year, and that the final investment decision will be made in the first quarter of 2010.
Talking to the Moscow Times, Andrei Plis said that there are no restrictions for foreign contractors in the field’s development. However, he added that there is a recommendation that they hire Russian companies as partners. “Every potential bidder must realize this and seek to broaden the Russian involvement,” he underlined.
Read more news about the Shtokman field in BarentsObserver’s Shtokman section
