Languages

We want only LNG at Shtokman, says Statoil

Statoil goes for LNG in the Barents Sea. Here from the company's Melkøya LNG terminal outside Hammerfest, Norway. Photo: Helge Hansen/Statoil

The Norwegian oil major believes that only LNG will make the Shtokman project economically viable.

Location

The original plans to develop the Shtokman field partly as LNG, partly as a pipeline project, will not be economically viable, Statoil Vice-President Peter Mellbye maintained in an interview with Russia Today.  

The same view was presented by Jan Helge Skogen, President of Statoil Russia, at an oil conference this week, Oilru.com reports.

Statoil consequently supports Gazprom proposal to develop the Shtokman project as a 100 percent LNG project. As previously reported, Gazprom Deputy Aleksandr Medvedev recently indicated that his company wants a new development model to be made for the grand Arctic project. The project’s final investment decision was subsequently postponed for an indefinite period.

Mellbye also argued that the project will have to be at least ten percent cheaper to develop.

As previously reported, Statoil appears to prefer the development of LNG also at fields in the Norwegian part of the Barents Sea.