RusEnergy

17 April 2007 - Upstream staff - Russia's huge Shtokman gas field in the Barents Sea will probably not be on stream before 2035 - two decades later than planned, Norwegian environmental group Bellona claimed today. Bellona chief Frederic Hauge told foreign journalists that Russia does not have the technology to develop the field by itself and must rely on foreign know-how. he made the claims during a briefing on environmental issues in the Arctic region. Hauge said potential foreign partners for Shtokman, while displaying interest in public, were privately growing wary of entering long-term deals in Russia after the Kremlin had muscled in on other petroleum projects, he said. "I don't believe Shtokman will be up and running before 2035," Reuters quoted Hauge as saying. Bellona has close links to the Norwegian oil industry, which helps to fund the group and draws on its advice. It has long been sceptical of developing Shtokman and has criticised Russia's environmental record in the Arctic. Hauge said foreign companies faced uncertainties over Shtokman that included the use of untested offshore technology, an unclear tax regime and still unspecified gas export routes and transit costs. Industry analysts have also said Russian gas giant Gazprom would struggle to complete the $20 billion project by itself. Located 550 kilometres off the coast of Russia's Kola peninsula, Shtokman has reserves of more than 3.7 trillion cubic metres of gas. Gazprom is reportedly in talks with France's Total , US supermajor ConocoPhillips and Norway's Statoil and Norsk Hydro to set up a joint operating company for Shtokman, which would own some infrastructure but not the gas. Last year Russian rejected bids by foreign companies to become equity partners in the field, saying Gazprom would develop Shtokman alone and foreign companies could be contractors. Discovered in the 1980s, the field was meant to come on stream in 2003 but the start up is now expected around 2013 to 2015.