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Statoil impatient on Shtokman

Gas from Shtokman

- The project as it is today is not commercially viable, says Head of Statoil in Russia, Jan Helge Skogen. Statoil wants significant fiscal relief for the Shtokman project in the form of discounted rates of mineral extraction tax and gas export duty.

Location

A Russian government guarantee of tax breaks for the Shtokman gas field is urgently required if a final investment decision in the project is to be made before the end of the year as planned, reports The Moscow Times.

In September BarentsObserver reported that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Gazprom must take a final investment decision on the Shtokman project within the end of the year.

– We are not giving up on this project, Putin said.

Now, Shtokman partner Statoil sends the ball back to the head of the Russian government and hints that an investment decision depends on a tax break guarantee. Statoil’s man in Moscow, Jan Helge Skogen, told The Moscow Times at a Norwegian-Russian Business Forum on in Moscow last week that the company was “trying to communicate a sense of urgency” to the talks.

The two other partners in the project are Gazprom and Total. Earlier this autumn, Head of the Department for Structural Analysis in Shtokman Development AG, Timur Saberzanov told RIA Novosti that despite the situation on the world market, development of the Shtokman field is justified.

According to The Moscow Times, Russia’s Energy Ministry expected the government to announce tax breaks for Shtokman within a month. That statement was made in October.

- It is critical that things now fall into place, says Statoil’s Jan Helge Skogen.