The framework for the first phase of the giant Shtokman filed in the Barents Sea has become an issue for debate between the project’s operator Shtokman Development AG and Gazprom Dobycha Shelf, who owns the license to the field, web site Newsru.com writes.
Vice President Jean-Jacques Mosconi of Total, who owns 25 percent of the stocks in Shtokman Development AG, recently told Wall Street Journal that production of gas will start at the field only in 2015, and that the first LNG will be delivered in 2016, as BarentsObserver reported.
Total’s reserved position could be an advantage for the Russian gas giant, as it comes from one of the foreign companies that became partners in the project precisely for solving the many technical challenges, Newsru.com claims.
Another reason for the foreign partners to avoid taking hasty decisions in the project is the numerous problems at Statoil’s LNG plant at Melkøya outside Hammerfest. Production at the plant was stopped earlier this week after just having started after a three months stoppage for repairs and maintenance, as reported by BarentsObserver.
The production stop can cost Statoil as much as one billion NOK, NRK.no reports, citing Finnmark Dagblad. Five to seven shipments of LNG will be lost during the two weeks the stop is waited to last. Every shipment is worth 140 million NOK in today’s gas prizes.
Gazprom officials have also indicated the previous deadline could slip. The company’s deputy chief executive Alexander Medvedev told reporters in September that Gazprom could delay Shtokman if gas demand in Europe doesn’t recover fast enough.
