Standing alone: Gazprom boss Alexei Miller
Gazprom goes it alone at Shtokman
Gazprom boss Alexei Miller has told Russian television that the gas giant will develop the huge Shtokman field in the Barents Sea on its own.
Russia Today television broke the news, quoting Gazprom boss Alexei Miller as saying that Gazprom had been unable to find suitable international partners for the liquefied natural gas project.
A Gazprom spokesman later confirmed the report.
"We are to develop the Shtokman field alone. It is a final decision," he said.
Miller told Russia Today that it would use gas from the field to supply the North European Gas Pipeline to Europe rather than liquefying it for export to the US.
"The European market is the number one for Gazprom," he added.
Shtokman lies in the Barents Sea and holds estimated 3.6 billion cubic metres of recoverable gas.
Last year, Gazprom said that it shortlisted US supermajors Chevron and ConocoPhillips, Norway's Norsk Hydro and Statoil and France's Total to join it in the development.
Despite the companies presenting technical and business proposals on the the development of the field months ago, Gazprom has never selected two or three of them as its final partners for Shtokman.
Statoil said in a statement that it would discuss the implications of the unexpected decision with Gazpom.
"We are confident that Statoil is a good partner for Russia in realising the Barents Sea potential. Statoil is still committed to a long-term presence in Russia and will continue to pursue business opportunities there," the company said.
A spokeswoman for French player Total told Upstream: "We have seen the reports, but we have not been contacted by Gazprom." She added Total had no further comment to make.
US supermajor ConocoPhillips said it had also not yet been notified by Russian Gazprom about the Shtokman decision.
"We have not been notified by any decision by Gazprom. Consequently, it would be inappropriate to comment," Reuters reported ConocoPhillips spokesman Bill Tanner as saying.