According to Total’s Christophe de Margerie, yet another delay in the project will not have large consequences: “What we lose while holding back the investment decision, we can get back during the construction of the onshore facilities”, he said to Reuters, Kommersant reports.
The date for the final investment decision on the giant offshore gas field in the Barents Sea has already been postponed many times. The last date was set to be July 1, as BarentsObserver reported. But only a few days ago the Russian partner Gazprom’s Aleksey Golubnichiy said that the final decision would be taken this autumn.
The postponements make it increasingly difficult for the company to meet its objective to start production in 2016.
The three Shtokman partners have all underlined that more beneficial tax conditions are needed for a successful launch of the project. Although a new tax regime for offshore Arctic projects have been announced by federal authorities, no promises have yet been made for the Shtokman project.
It is possible that the Shtokman shareholders are reconsidering the whole technological design for the gas field development. Originally it was planned that Total and Statoil would take part in only the first phase of the development (23.5 billion m³ gas, half of which should be transported to the shore through a pipeline, the other half processed to LNG), but now the partners are discussing a joint development of all three phases, where all gas will be processed liquefied, a source says to Kommersant.
