Shtokman delay with "colossal significance"
A delay of one or two years would have a “colossal significance” for the Shtokman project, CEO of Gazprom’s Shtokman Development, Yury Komarov, said yesterday.
Talking to the press yesterday, Mr. Komarov said that the Shtokman gas project in the Barents Sea will remain economically viable with oil prices at about 50-60 USD per barrel, the Moscow Times reports.
He also said that a delay of one or two years would have a “colossal significance” for the project. Gazprom expects Shtokman to be providing 11 percent of output by 2020.
A number of experts believe however that the Shtokman partners will not be able to meet the ambitious production deadline of 2013. In a seminar last week, Norwegian INTSOK representative Håkon Skretting indicated that the project’s final investment decision could be delayed into 2010.
Mr. Skretting, a man believed to be in close contact with several of the Shtokman-stakeholders, later clarified to BarentsObserver that the process is progressing and that a delay is only a possibility.
The partners in the Shtokman Development Company, Gazprom, Total and StatoilHydro, are according to plans to decide on the project’s final investment decision in fall 2009. The investments for the first Shtokman development phase has earlier been estimated to 15 billion USD.
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