Goals and means

Alexey Miller is looking for a business model for developing the Shtokman field

Gazprom, having refused to create a consortium with foreign companies in the project to develop the Shtokman field, has still not decided what to do with it alone. As the concern's press service reported yesterday, Chairman of the Board Alexey Miller held a meeting on Monday on this topic. However, it has not yet been possible to approve the Shtokman business model without foreigners. The company is discussing the timing and technology for implementing the second phase - the production of liquefied natural gas (LNG), as well as the scheme of interaction with foreign partners, without whom it will be extremely difficult to develop this giant offshore field. Apparently, in this regard, yesterday Mr. Miller received the head of the French Total, Christophe de Margerie. The Total boss arrived in Moscow a week after he spent almost two days under arrest in the French Palace of Justice. Mr. de Margerie is suspected of bribery in obtaining a contract to develop Iranian gas fields in 1997. “At the meeting, issues of cooperation in the gas sector were discussed,” Gazprom’s press release says sparingly. “In particular, the parties discussed the possibility of cooperation within the framework of the project for the development of the Shtokman gas condensate field.”

Last fall, Mr. Miller announced that Gazprom had not accepted a single offer to exchange shares in the Shtokman LNG project from foreign companies and had decided that it would itself be the owner of all the reserves of this field. Prior to this, the Russian monopolist had been negotiating for more than a year with five contenders for 49% in the project - Norwegian Hydro and Statoil, American Chevron and ConocoPhillips, and French Total. The first phase of field development assumed the annual production of 22.5 billion cubic meters of gas and the production of 13.6 million tons of LNG. It was planned that the plant would start operating in 2011-2012.

According to the official version of Gazprom, it was not satisfied with the assets offered by potential partners either in terms of cost or strategic importance for turning into a truly global energy corporation. However, it is likely that the concern needed a guaranteed source of large volumes of pipeline gas, primarily for the stable filling of the new export route to Europe - Nord Stream. “At the meeting, it was noted that the development of the Shtokman field is of strategic importance for the export of Russian gas to Europe via the Nord Stream gas pipeline, as well as the organization of liquefied natural gas production,” the company said in a press release yesterday. It is reported that special attention was paid to the project implementation schedule, ensuring the synchronization of the start of production, pipeline gas supplies and LNG production with Gazprom's long-term gas balance. Although it is known that the concern does not yet have such a document approved by at least the company’s board of directors. That is, in fact, Gazprom still does not know exactly how much gas it needs to produce in order to meet demand in Russia and export contracts. He only knows that, according to long-term contracts already signed, exports to non-CIS countries should grow by about 100 billion cubic meters by 2015. Given that gas production at Gazprom’s largest operating fields will by that time be significantly reduced.

In this regard, the new priority in the form of pipeline gas, which is dictated by the need to fill the second string of Nord Stream with a capacity of 27 billion cubic meters per year, is also clear. It is going to be put into operation at the end of 2013.

However, the fact that Gazprom has resumed negotiations with former applicants for the consortium indicates its inability to technically implement the project on its own. Of the negotiators, only Chevron refused to talk about cooperation without receiving a share of the reserves. But the whole question is the nature of the compensation. Neither Total, nor the recently merged StatoilHydro, much less ConocoPhillips, will most likely work for money - they still expect to be paid in gas. Gazprom is still analyzing the proposals presented. Details of yesterday's negotiations. Representatives of the Russian and French companies do not disclose Miller and de Margerie.

Alexey GRIVACHS