Technip 'tucks in to Shtokman FEED'
French oil services group Technip will prepare engineering studies for a liquefied natural gas plant as part of a first phase of development of giant Russian gas field Shtokman, two sources close to the situation said.
"Technip has been picked to provide the front-end engineering and design for transportation onshore, and a technological complex, including an LNG (liquefied natural gas) plant," a source close to the situation told Reuters today.
A second source close to the matter confirmed the information, and said the decision would be announced this weekend or on Monday by the Shtokman Development company.
The Shtokman Development company is a special purpose vehicle set up by Gazprom, Total and StatoilHydro to build the infrastructure at Shtokman.
Gazprom owns 51% of the Switzerland-registered venture, while Total and StatoilHydro hold 25% and 24% respectively.
The FEED contract would be worth only tens of millions of euros for Technip, the second source estimated, but this would position the French group well to possibly build the multi-billion dollar LNG train.
Total has said it will decide next year whether to invest in the project. The initial development stage is expected to cost $15 billion.